Harry Potter and the normal childhood
by Conan 55
Summary: What would happen if Harry overhears a sentence from Vernon about Magic. How would this change his childhood and in consequence change the Harry when he is coming to Hogwarts. This is my take on that. Story is HHR and Ron bashing.
1. The Stone starts rolling

AN: Hello, I read Fanficiton since quite some time now and decided to write my own one. This is about what would happen if Harry heard a sentence from Vernon about magic. Also this will be a HHr and will contain Weasly Bashing. Also my native language is not English, so sorry for any mistakes, as I do not have a beta yet. If there is someone who would like to beta this story just pm me, thank you. Now on with the first chapter.

Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing, well except my own ideas, I get nothing, sadly no exception here, just playing around. Thanks to JK Rowling, who is nice enough to allow that, but too stupid to realise her own parings...

Chapter 1: The Stone starts rolling

March 1988 Primary school Little Whining

"There is he, get him!" called Dudley. They were taking part in their usual break entertainment, also called "Harry Hunting". As Harry heard this, his insides turned to ice as he though of what happened the last time they got him.

Dudley broke his right arm, as Harry tried to protect his face. Even worse Dudley stumbled and fell, while chasing him, which Dudley immediately blamed on Harry as soon as Dudley was home.

That earned Harry another beating by Vernon after which Harry was thrown into his cupboard, while Vernon said:

"Now you have time to think about you actions. Never again think it is all right to make Dudley fall and then try to blame him, Freak!"

No, that was not what Harry wanted to happen this time. All he wanted, was a quiet time, so he could immerse himself in his books. Even though, he was not allowed to be better than Dudley in school or he would get in troubles with his relatives. The books were one of the only things that gave Harry any sense of peace.

Also Harry quite curious, which made him not only read books but also learn quite a bit just for the sake of learning. Back to the Problem at hand, Harry needed a place where Dudley and his gang wouldn't follow him.

His Though ran wild as he tried to think of a place where he was save. Because of that, he did not concentrate enough on where he was running, so he bumped into someone and fell. As he looked up to apologise, he saw that he bumped into Pierce, who did ran the other way around the school yard to cut him off.

As Harry lay there the remainder of the group slowly gathered around him.

_"No, please, this can't happen again,"_ thought Harry frantically, while wishing as strong as he could to be anywhere safe. Suddenly Harry felt like he was being squeezed into a small bottle. His arms and legs tried to mould themselves into his body, when suddenly the feeling was gone as fast as it appeared.

Harry was afraid of opening his eyes, since he expected to see his cousin standing over him. Slowly the curiosity about the feeling won out and he started to open his eyes. He did not want to get his hopes up, that something changed, but normally his cousin would already taunt him.

Harry's eyes gradually opened and as he did not see his cousin or in therefore anyone standing above him he looked around and immediately wished he didn't. He was on a roof, and if he was right, it was his cousin calling down there. Which meant, that this was the roof of their school.

"_Whoa wait. How the Hell did I end up here?",_ thought Harry. After all just moments ago he was lying down there in the school yard, waiting for the inevitable beating of Dudley's group. So, how was it possible for him to just disappear and than reappear at the roof of the school?

While he wondered about that, his next thoughts completely shoved the wonder of this feat out of his head.

"_I'll be in so much trouble, as soon as Uncle Vernon hears of this."_

And there was no way Vernon would not here of this, as Dudley was not able to beat him, he would tell his Daddy, so Harry would get into trouble.

The first Problem was getting off this roof, than he could start getting ready for the punishment Vernon would give him, for his "unnatural" behaviour. This was always the reason for his beatings, as his relatives prided themselves for being a perfectly normal family, doing perfectly normal things. Sadly disappearing in the school yard and then reappearing on the roof, does not count as normal.

After half an hour Harry was back on the ground and on his way back to Privet Drive. He shuddered at the gleeful look that his cousin gave him, as the teachers fetched him from the roof. That look normally meant that Dudley would be imaginative in the story he was going to tell his parents. That on the other hand, would have an negative result in his punishment. The letter from his school director asking for an explanation for the incident did not help either.

Harry arrived at Privet Drive Number 4, wishing to be anywhere else, sadly did not had the same results as in the school yard, and Harry started to doubt at his mind. He already knew what was going to happen, as soon as Vernon came back from his work.

Harry's prediction came true, as soon as Vernon went through the door of Privet Drive. Dudley immediately ran to him and cried:

"Daddy, Daddy he did his freaky stuff again."

"So did he?" asked Vernon his knuckles cracking.

"Yes. We wanted to play with him, but he just laughed at us and then vanished. Seconds later he shouted at us from the roof of the school, that we were too stupid to play with him."

Dudley explained, while smirking. Vernon called Harry, who slowly came, with his head downcast, from the cupboard that was his room.

Vernon turned to him.

"So you think, that after we fed you, gave you clothes and a home. That after all that, you can just go laugh and insult Dudley and think that this will go unpunished?"

"But I didn't..."

Harry instantly knew, that this was the wrong thing to say, as soon as he saw the Hand from Vernon coming full force at his head and the next thing he felt was pain, as Vernon hit him in the face.

"Ah!"

Vernon just carried on as if nothing happened.

"Lying again are we? I thought the last lesson was enough to stop you from lying ever again. But then again, what can you expected with such near criminals as parents?"

Harry just tried to blank Vernon and the coming beating out, as usual. He curled himself to a small ball, to give less surface to be hit on.

Harry groaned as he was thrown into his cupboard. Even lying was hurtful for Harry. He tried to get into a position, where his injuries would not get worse and where the pain was as little as possible.

What ever he tried, he would be left with pain, as Vernon was known in taking great care in hitting everything while berating him and insulting his parents. It was one of the worse punishments as Vernon gradually worked himself up about his "unnatural" nephew. Slowly and painful Harry drifted of into unconsciousness, welcoming it as salvation.

He slowly regained his conscious. While his injuries did hurt less, they were still painful enough considering he was only a 8 year old boy. Slowly Harry got more and more aware of his surroundings.

Sensing a pressing need, he needed a few attempts to stand up, as his legs would buckle from the pain his body still experienced. As he managed to stand up, he shakily walked to the cupboard door, praying that it wasn't locked. In his semi conscious state he didn't hear the quite click that signalled his door being unlocked.

It happened as he neared the bathroom, when he heard the sentence that would change his live quite significantly. He would only realise it when he woke up the next time what it meant when he heard Vernon say:

"There is no way he will ever learn about magic!"

Harry hauled himself to the toilet and back to bed where he slowly drifted back to unconsciousness.

The next time Harry started to open his eyes, he felt way better and started to wonder how long he might have been out this time. Not that anybody would tell him, but it would give him an idea what to expect.

That was not the main thing on his mind right now. The dominating thought in his mind was the last sentence Harry heard from Vernon. Harry was confused which showed in his thoughts:

"_What did he mean with that? He always says that there is no such thing as magic. But if there was..."_

Harry's mind wandered back to the incident that caused his present situation. While disappearing and reappearing definitely did not count as normal, it would count as magic better yet, there was no "normal" way of explaining that action.

Now to the question on who could have done this. Slowly Harry remembered other incident's where Vernon would get furious and try to beat the "Freakishness" out of Harry.

"_Uncle Vernon was talking, that he will never allow somebody to learn magic, but who?"_

The only one, who was at these events was Harry. Also Vernon hates everything that has to do with magic passionately, the same Passion he only holds in regards to Harry.

"_Could it be, that he talks about me leaning magic? That would mean, that I did magic,"_

Harry thought excitedly. Now Harry needed a way repeat it, so that, if he was able to do magic, he could do it when he wanted and not only on accident.

Harry mentally went through all the times, when one of these accidents happened and tried to find out what could have caused it. He remembered the first one very well.

It was one his first day of school, the day when Harry learned his name, as all he was called till then was Boy or Freak. The teacher called the roll, where Harry could not react as he did not know his name.

When the teacher got angry at Harry, asking if he was too stupid to react to his name, Harry felt embarrassed and was frightened. He wanted to embarrass the teacher and as Harry looked back up the teacher had blue hair.

Than there were smaller ones, where Harry was lucky that nobody seemed to have noticed them. Harry needed to find out what they had in common, if he wanted to be able to use magic at will.

The more Harry thought about it, the more he realised, that every time one of these strange things happened, it was a emotionally very intense situation. Harry learned long ago, that showing emotions in Privet Drive was just an invitation for Vernon to hit him more, so he started learning to suppress them, until he was able to almost always keep his emotions hidden.

"_So it looks like emotions are the key to magic."_

Harry thought. Now Harry needed to verify this. The best way would be to actually use magic, but if Harry was wrong he would be stuck here forever. That would also mean, that his Uncle did speak about something completely different and that Harry wasn't able to do magic.

"_Well I won't know, if I don't try it."_

And with that resolve Harry looked around in his cupboard for something small to test and experiment a bit.

He found a small wood stick, that splintered from the cupboard door some time ago. While he picked it up, Harry was amazed how such a small item could change it life, or doom it forever.

Because if his experiment failed and he was not able to do magic, the small amount of hope that collected itself in Harry's mind, would be destroyed. Harry lay the stick a on his bed. He stood up and looked at it.

"_Now what?",_

were Harry's thoughts. He did not had a clue, what he was supposed to do now, or how to make magic happen.

His best bet would be just to try a few different things, so Harry stretched his arms in the direction of his bed and concentrated on the wood. He wanted to make it fly.

As Nothing happened, Harry closed his eyes and tried to concentrate harder. But again nothing happened. Saddened, Harry let his arms fall back to his body and thought dejectedly:

"_Maybe Uncle Vernon is right and there is no such as magic and I am really a Freak._

_But what did he mean than, with: "There is no way he will ever learn about magic!"_

_There has to be something to these incidents. It just HAS to work! I don't want to live the rest of my life as a servant to the Dursley's"_

Refreshed with how his thought's turned around and determined that something just had to explain these incident's, Harry decided to give it one more try.

He looked at the wood stick angrily. Again Harry wanted to make it fly, but this time he did not stop there. He let the desire fill his mind, as he closed his eyes. He wanted nothing more, than to make this small stick of wood fly.

It started as wiggling. Slowly, ever so slowly the stick started to rise. Harry opened his eyes, because he felt a warm tingling at his fingertips. He was so shocked to see the stick about a feet in the air, that he lost the focus and the stick fell back down on the bed. The warm feeling in his fingers was gone, too.

Harry nearly shouted in joy, because there was no doubt in his mind now, that this was magic. He was able to collect himself and only grinned like never before. The next thing on his mind was the need to train, so it did not take so much time and concentration just to make something fly.

Still that would have to wait, because even this small feat took a lot out of Harry's energy and he still had to complete his chores or it would be right back to being "educated" on right behaviour.

Harry just removed the stick from his bed, when the cupboard was opened by Harry's aunt, who said:

"So you are awake again. Go and take care of the garden, after that make dinner, your Uncle and Dudley will be home soon."

"Yes Aunt Petunia," Harry answered. He needed to keep it secret, that he discovered how to do magic, because he still had no where to go and Vernon would sure kick Harry out of this house, if he even suspected Harry of being able to do magic at will.

After that, the house number 4 on Privet Drive slowly returned back to it's usual behaviour, with one exception. Every night now right before going to bed Harry would use some time to train in magic. Something that will have quit the impact on his future.

October Privet Drive Number 4 Little Whining, Cupboard under the stairs:

Harry woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning. A little earlier than normal for him, but he wanted to test something. Doing it early, would ensure nobody would notice, especially his relatives.

It was a little more than half a year ago, when Harry found out, that he was able to do magic. Since then, he trained hard but it was an extremely slow going process.

He was now able to let the wood stick, or something of similar size, fly without too much of a hassle. It still took some effort, but Harry wanted to see what else he could to with magic.

He wanted to know whether he was able to unlock his door. This would allow him to be out of his cupboard, even if his relatives weren't at Privet Drive.

Harry started nearly the same way, he did with the stick. He looked at the door and wished that it would open. But as his first attempt, with the wood stick nothing happened.

Harry tried to use the pattern he got used to while training with the wood stick. He closed his eyes and tried to find the feeling he associated with magic, since every time he could do magic he had the same feeling.

Harry was confused why it took him so long to find the feeling when he did something new opposed to doing something he already trained, where he could do it nearly instantly.

Finally after 10 minutes he heard he faint klick and the door door was open.

Harry opened the cupboard slowly, because he didn't want to get caught and after ensuring that the door was really unlocked, he closed it again.

His curiosity satisfied, Harry now had to lock the door again or his aunt would get suspicious, when she came to let him out of the cupboard, to make breakfast.

Harry concentrated on the door and tried to lock the door again. That the first attempt didn't work, was nothing new to Harry. But as his 3rd attempt also failed he was getting worried.

Harry, hearing Petunia coming down the stairs he nearly fell into a panic, because the door still was not locked.

As the steps of Petunia got louder and nearer, Harry fell into a full panic and desperately wished:

"_Please, don't let her realise that the door wasn't locked, please!"_

The steps stopped before Harry's door and he heard a surprised:  
"What the...!"

As Petunia opened the door her face first showed surprise, which slowly morphed into anger.

But as soon as Petunia looked at Harry, Harry felt familiar feeling, which he always felt while doing magic, and Petunias face changed back and she looked at Harry with her normal disdain.

She just wrinkled her nose and went to the living room. Harry just stood there. He was so surprised, that he didn't react at first. As he realised what happened he hurried to the kitchen to get breakfast ready, he didn't want to test his luck, but his thought's were in chaos.

"_Why didn't aunt Petunia say anything about the door? Could it be that she didn't realised it? But she did say something as if there was something not right. And then she looked at me. What magic did I use there? Is it possible to make people forget or not realise things?"_

Harry was lucky that he was so used to making breakfast that he did not do something wrong even though his concentration was no where near the kitchen.

He just had to try this out again, to know what exactly happened, because if he could make people not realise things, this would give Harry chances to do what he always wanted but because of his "family" never could.

The other thing was, if magic could do that, what other amazing things could be achieved with magic?

He was still fantasising about the possibilities of magic on his way to school. School started out like at any other day. Like any Wednesday, an hour of maths followed by two hours sport.

It was the English lesson that was different than on other days. Mrs. Perings the English teacher of Harry and Dudley began the class normally, but halfway through she said:

"All right. Listen up everyone. A college of mine and I came up with an idea to improve your English. You will be required to write at least 3 letters to a pen pal. You will give he letters to me and we will than forward it to a person who we think has the most things with you in common. You will be required to hand me the first letter no later than Friday. We will be happy to forward any additional letters after the first three."

The class was filled with groaning as the pupils realised how much work that would mean. Harry wasn't thrilled either, but he took it as a chance to improve his writing that suffered strongly at his relatives. The rest of the day went like the norm and Harry found himself in the library after school.

Harry did not have time to do his homework at Privet Drive, because of the chores his relatives would always give him, so he always went to the library after school and finished it there.

This also had the bonus of him being able to read about anything that struck his mind, as his relatives were happy when he came home late, Harry just needed to be in time to prepare dinner and do the usual chores.

But today there would be no reading as Harry was too focused on his English homework. This pen pal could be his first real friend, since Dudley did not know where he lived he could not scare him, like the rest of his schoolmates. With this in mind Harry started working at his letter:

_Dear Pen pal,_

_my name is Harry and I'm 8 years old. Our teacher just asked us to write a letter that he than give to a collogue of her. As such I will just tell you about myself. _

_Like I said my name is Harry, my complete name is Harry Potter and I'm a 8 year old boy._

_I like reading a lot and spent most of my time in the local library. I will just look through the shelves and look for a book that peaks my interest. Than I go to my favourite spot and start reading. _

_The last series I started to read was Sherlock Holmes. It's interesting what you can learn just by paying attention to your surroundings._

_I hope, I did not bore you to dead with my rantings about books, but it's my favourite topic and I like talking about it. I hope that you like reading, too. _

_I hope that we can stay in contact as I do not have too many friends and always like to make one._

_My cousin also goes in the same class as me but he isn't exactly the smartest and like to beat up people._

_That's also the reason that I spent most of my time in the library and started to read books._

_Like I said, I hope, that I did not bore you too much and that we can stay in contact after the initial three letters._

_Hope to hear soon of you_

_Harry_

After Harry finished with his letter, he reread it. After he was sure that it did not reveal too much of his personal life he put the letter away and started with the rest of his homework.

He did take some risk in revealing that much about Dudley. If Petunia or Vernon ever found this letter Harry would be in so much trouble that he would be lucky if he ever woke up again.

After Harry finished the rest, he started to look for a interesting book, that he could read for the rest of his time today.

Friday arrived and Harry gives his letter to his teacher. Harry luckily didn't need to write Dudley's letter, even though he had to do every other Homework of Dudley. Vernon and Petunia thought that Harry would sabotage any friendship attempt of Dudley, if Harry wrote the letters.

The weekend went slowly for Harry as he was excited and a little afraid about the letter he would receive. The teacher said, that they should be expecting a letter around Monday in a week, as they wanted to give the other students about a week time to answer the letters.

Over the week the excitement in Harry build up more and more, as did the fear of having another Dudley as pen pal.

South of little Whining about an hour away by car, in Crawley. There was a little girl who was sitting at her desk in her room. She was trying to do her English Homework. It was different than the normal assignments they got. They had to reply to a letter which was handed to them by their teacher.

The teachers hoped that some would continue after the three mandatory letters, so that pen friendship could develop. Hermione really hoped that this Harry could be her friend, since she did not have any at school.

This was thanks to her tormentors who, mostly ridiculed her for her intelligence and the rest either just ignored her or were too afraid to come into focus of the bullys. The only help she got was from her teachers and, when she was in the library.

As she read the letter she got from Harry she couldn't contain herself. There was someone, who also loved reading and spent quite some time in the library.

Maybe there was a chance of them becoming friends. As the excitement threatened to boil over, she just had to start writing the letter. Yes it was only due on Friday but Hermione liked to get her work done early.

_Dear Pen pal, _

_My name is Hermione Granger and I got your letter from my teacher for our pen pal project._

_Since this is my first letter to you I would like to introduce myself._

_I am 9 years old and as you can tell from my name, I am a girl. In have brown curly locks and brown eyes. _

_When I read your letter I have noticed that we have a lot in common. I am a great fan of books myself. The library near my school is one of my favourite places in my town. _

_I for myself have read Sherlock Holmes for a few times now and this series is one of my favourites. _

_I like it especially when he solves the riddle with the help of small evidences, that seem unimportant at the time._

_I do not only like reading books for fun but also for learning, which is one of my favourite activity. I am on top of my class in nearly every subject. Perhaps that is the reason why I have no real friend either. Since we both have no friends I would certainly like to become yours._

_I hope, that I hear of you soon, _

_Hermione_

The week passed and as Harry got the letter from Hermione some of his fears vanished. The letter seemed like it was written by a nice enough person and her hobbies looked very similar to his.

Harry put the letter in a hiding place he found at the library. He did not want to take them with to Privet Drive, as he did not want his Aunt or worse his Uncle to find them.

Later that day, as Harry was doing is daily magic exercises, he thought about what he could write in his next letter to Hermione. Maybe he could write about books, since she seemed to like reading and it was a safe enough topic.

His magic still frustrated him, it was so slow going. It was 7 months ago that he found out about magic but the only thing he could do with any real reliability, was letting that small wood stick fly. Anything else was extreme exhausting and he could not always make it work.

After that, live in Privet Drive Number 4, Little Whining went back to normal, at least partially. Harry and Hermione continued to write each other a letter nearly every week and Harry continued his exercises in magic.


	2. Magic and a Friend

Chapter 2:

A/N: Welcome back. I thank you guys for the reviews and everything. Sadly I still have not found a beta, so you will have to endure with my grammar and spelling mistakes :D . I know it did take quite some time for this chapter to come out, but I rather take more time, to make the chapter good instead of rushing it. No I stop rambling and wish you fun with the new chapter.

Disclaimer: Like always, not mine just playing with it. Thanks to J.K Rowling, who is nice enough to let us play with it and NO it do not make money out of it, else I would not have to go to University.

October 1989:

Harry and Hermione continued to write each other continuously every week. Both their teachers were pretty happy, as this was the exact example of what they hoped would happen.

They had noticed that both, Harry and Hermione, did not have many friends in school and while Hermione was top of her class, Harry had dropped to mediocre, after the first few tests. That was something that did surprise Mrs Perings a lot. The fact that every teacher knows, that Harry is in the library everyday and doing more than just his homework there.

They saw the books that Harry read and to be honest, they were quite difficult for a nine year old. Also were confused about the tests he wrote. It was just that every time one of Harry's teachers collected the homework, that they were nearly perfect from Harry. Though in the test his was just about in the lower half of the class.

To be honest getting better at writing was only partly responsible for the teacher to create this letter exchange. The other part was, that they wanted to open the children up, to the world. Given it was a little early but they thought better too early than too late and it is not as if there was any risk involved. The teacher did read the first three letter that were exchange, as they needed to grade them and after that they thought that they knew if they was any problem.

What they didn't know was that Harry now had a small Problem. The fear of his relatives finding his letters made Harry hide his letter in the library. But slowly the amount of letters exchanged by Harry and Hermione got too great for him, to continue to hide them in the library.

To solve this problem Harry brought the letter with him to Privet Drive. Now he had to find a way to hide them from his relatives, because Harry did not even want to think about what would happen, if Vernon found one of this letters. He was in his cupboard, when Harry had the idea:

"_I could to try and hide them with magic, it's not like my relatives can see through magic."_

Harry made sure to place the letters out of the way, so nobody would accidentally step on them. Than he closed his eyes and concentrated like always when he wanted to do magic. He imagined the letter to be inconspicuous to anyone but himself. After he felt the familiar feeling, he was pretty sure that the letters were now hidden. Only time would tell, as Harry had no way to test, if it had worked.

For the first week, everything went well. The letters were hidden, which was proven when Harry was accused of stealing some money from his relatives. Of course it was Dudley who stole it, but Harry was blamed as always. Even tough they could not find anything, as they searched the cupboard under the stairs Harry was still punished, since they were sure that Harry had just hidden it elsewhere.

Than there was the Problem that Harry was consistently feeling tired, since the day he brought the letters home with him. Harry was used to getting little sleep, because he had to do chores until late into the night and than early in the morning. But this week it was worse and Harry had troubles keeping his eyes open. Sometimes that brought him quite some trouble with his relatives, as he made small mistakes in his chores and Vernon gladly took any chance he got to punish Harry.

That all was not too bad. Harry was sure that the tiredness would go away and than he it would be like always. As Hermione's next letter arrived, Harry was happy since he was always looking forward to these letters from his friend.

Harry read it and laid it onto the others, but because he was tired and lacked concentration, he did not cast the spell anew or did anything else besides laying the letter on the others. Something that would have quite the consequences. After that Harry went to the garden to mow the lawn and the next thing that he heard was Vernon shouting angrily:

"BOY! Come here, this instant!"

Harry tried to come up with an idea why Vernon was angry at him. The problem was just, that it could be anything and even if it was not Harry's fault, Vernon would still blame Harry. As Harry realised that he was still standing in the garden, he hurried to go inside. It was never a good idea to let Vernon wait, especially when he was angry.

Arriving, Harry saw what Vernon had in his hand and he instantly froze, while all colour drained from his face. There in Vernon's hands was one of the letters he got from Hermione. Vernon's face was already red, started to get the typical purple colour and Harry knew he was lucky, if he was ever able to write Hermione again.

The next thing he knew was a stinging pain as Vernon fist collided with his face.

"What do you think, writing to someone, behind our backs? Did you really think that you could slander us a normal family with your Freakishness? I will show you the consequences, for your ungratefulness!"

This was the start of the worst beating Harry received from Vernon to this date. After Harry was unresponsive to the beatings, for quite some time, Vernon began to cool down and threw him into the cupboard.

Harry, who was already unconscious after half of the beating, just lay there bleeding and if anyone would see him lying there they would think that he was dead. Also would they see a wondrous thing as quite a few letters begin to appear out of thin air, one after another.

Harry awoke to a world of pain. This was a semi-good thing. It was a sign that Harry was still alive, but being in pain was never someone would consider a nice experience. Harry tried to find out if he had any broken bones by trying to move different parts of his body. Harry was already quite used to pain, as his relatives made sure that he was "educated" at least twice a month.

Harry was lucky. He was able to move everything, even though he was sure that there were quite some broken bones. Slowly Harry tried to stand up. He succeeded, but was pretty wobbly on his feet but he was able to stand. Also the pain got stronger again as he strained his body.

The next thing Harry did was to look around his "room" and he was scared by what he saw. All of Hermione's letter were scattered around, but surprisingly they were still here, what meant that Vernon did only find the one he had. He must have knocked them over as Vernon tossed him back into the cupboard. Collecting them he counted to see if they were any more missing.

Relieved Harry noticed that it was only one letter that was missing, the one Vernon found, which earned him the beating. Now he had to find a way to respond to that letter, since Harry was sure that Dudley would now the ordered to bring Harry home with him after school. This would not be the first time this happened.

"_Still that does not explain, why Vernon only found the one letter from Hermione. He already looked in here and did not see the letters before. Looks like the last letter was not hidden, by the magic, but why? I made sure that every letter was hidden before."_

These were the questions which plagued Harry's mind for the next week, when he had a few moments rest, as it was as he predicted. Vernon told him in no uncertain terms what would happen if he was not home with Dudley after school, or if he should continue to be so careless in his chores.

Harry again used magic to hide the letters, after all it had worked and now Harry just had to find out what went wrong, to not make same mistake again, if he was allowed back to write letters to Hermione. As such Harry tried to make an experiment, to see what went wrong and how he would be able to stop being tired all the time.

He started by trying to make the letters invisible even to himself, so he could see what happened and how Vernon was able to find the letter. But the first Problem was to make sure that he would not be interrupted while he was experimenting. The best time was in the night when his relatives were all in bed.

Harry took the weekend, which was because that way he had no school on the next day and only chores to worry about. It took him quite some time until he managed to hide the letters from himself. After that he took one letter of the stack and laid it back on there. Nothing changed as the letter were still hidden.

As next thing, Harry took one letter that he had not on the stack and as such it was not yet hidden, like a new letter from Hermione would be. He laid it on the others and there was the reason Vernon found the letter and only that one letter. While the other letter were still hidden, the new one was not and it looked like it was floating.

As Harry now knew how Vernon found the letter, he now need to know why the new letter was not hidden. Harry thought back to when he hid them, he wanted to hide the stack of letters. As Harry thought back to the exact thoughts he had, he had an idea. He just wanted to hide the letters, but not any new one. With this idea Harry tried again and this time when he hid the stack of letters, he made sure to include any new letters in his thoughts.

Now when he laid the new letter on the stack, it too was hidden. Having solved this problem, he now only needed to do something about the tiredness. But that had to wait until the next day, as Harry was too tired and he still needed to make breakfast in the morning.

The next evening, after everyone in Privet Drive Number 4 went to bed, Harry was determined to find a solution to the problem of continued tiredness. He knew the reason, it was not hard to find it. It started when he brought the letters home with him and he started to hide them with magic. But he did not know how he could change anything.

The best way would be to just stop using magic to hide the letters, but Harry had no idea how else to hide them. That means he had to find a way to store magic or something. As Harry knew nothing of the magic world or of any rules, what should be possible or impossible with magic, he just went with what his imagination would give him.

First he reverted the letters back, that they were only hidden from his relatives and than he touched them with his hand and tried to shove some of the magic into them. He closed his eyes and searched for the feeling he connected with his magic and than tried to force it through his fingers into the letters. It was pretty difficult, but it seemed to work. When he thought that it was enough he stopped and lied back onto the bed.

When Harry awoke on the next morning, he was refreshed like normal. It seemed that his solution worked. There was only one drawback, Harry needed to recharge them everyday, as he not yet had enough power to make it last longer. But he would just do that everyday before he went to sleep and as such was no real problem.

A month later:

It was Tuesday again and Mrs Perings asked Harry to stay behind, after she had released the class. Harry did not know what the teacher could want from him, but was out of options as the class slowly filtered out and Dudley gave him one of his satisfied smirks, because he was sure that Harry was getting in trouble.

Harry too was sure that he was in trouble, even if he could for his life not imagine why. As such when he heard the next question from Mrs. Perings he was quite surprised.

"I asked you to stay behind Harry, because I wanted to ask, if anything was wrong?"

She asked this with a kind face, while hiding her worry. She knew that this was unusual, after all a teacher should not have favourites, but she could not help herself. It was hearth warming to see them writing to each other. It was after all one of the main reasons they came up with this idea, but they did not really expect anything, because who had a pen pal at the age of nine.

The worry came partly because Harry had stopped writing, but the other part was, because the teachers did not see Harry in the library after school anymore. It was not the first time that Harry stopped going to the library after school, but it still worried Mrs Perings.

Now that Mrs Perings had a letter from Hermione for Harry, she decided it was the best time she would get for speaking with him. She wanted to see, if she could get to know the reason, why Harry stopped writing and spending time in the library. She knew it would be difficult as Harry was quite a closed person, but she had to try.

Harry did not know how he should answer this question. His live at the Dursley's and the first year at this school made him pretty wary of any adults. Every time he trusted in an adult it would find its way back to the Dursleys and that would just result in another punishment for him. As such he tried to answer with as little information as possible, all the while still telling the truth.

"Everything is ok, Mrs."

But Mrs Perings caught the small trepidation in his voice and knew that there was more to it, than Harry let on. But there was nothing she could do right now. There was no way she could get any information out of him, if he was so closed off and she did not want to force anything, in case she was wrong. She gave Harry Hermione's letter and let him go, hoping that she was wrong, or that she got another chance to see what was wrong.

Harry waited until he was locked in his cupboard, before he started to read the latest letter of Hermione, as it would minimize the danger of his relatives finding him reading the letter. They were still very alert and if Harry was caught with one letter again, he would be lucky to see the next day.

_Dear Harry,_

_I just could not wait any longer and I wanted to ask you what happened?_

_Why did you not respond to my last letter?_

_Is everything ok with you?_

_I really would like to know what's up with you, you are my first pen pal so I would like to continue and I thought that we were friends._

_Sorry for rambling, but I was worried about you._

_Hope to hear of you soon._

_Hermione_

Harry was pretty scared what would happen, to this friendship now, as he would not able to reply in the near future. If he would not be able to somehow write a reply to Hermione, this friendship could end, something Harry did not ever want to happen. But Harry had no idea how he could go about writing a letter to Hermione.

For the next week Harry looked for the smallest chance to write a letter, but there just was no way. One day he even went to the library and refused to leave with Dudley. Since Dudley did not want to make a scene in front of the librarian, he went home. Not ten minutes later Vernon was there and personally dragged Harry in the car. Back at Privet Drive Vernon showed Harry, what exactly he thought of this idea. Harry was not able to go to school the next day.

Than a wonder happened. At least Harry called it a wonder. It was in his next English class. Mrs Perings told them, that the teachers had decided, to see, who took last years pen pal assignment serious. Also they wanted to reward the pupils who stayed in contact with each other, by letting them meet.

The children could learn if they had changed, or if they were the same they were a year before. For that the teacher gave the children a information sheet for their parents on which they should mark the days the child had time. They also said that, they would be required to write a small paper on the meeting, to make sure that everyone took part and they were interested, if they brought the right children together.

Harry could not quite believe what he was hearing, here was a chance for him to meet his first friend. But after the first happiness, dread began to overtake his train of thoughts. If Hermione came to Privet Drive, that would be the end of the friendship. The Dursleys would make sure of that, the only chance he would be, if he was able to go to her place. But that was something he could not see happening in a thousand years.

When the Dursley's learned if this, they were in a precarious situation. Of course they would like to deny Harry this meeting, but the problem was they did not want to loose their face in public. The Dursleys prized themselves, that they are a perfect normal family. But it was not normal for a boy to never have time in the two weeks the teacher gave them and that would reflect bad onto his family. As such the Dursley's had to make a decision what was more worth to them. Since they had decided that the Freak would not make them change their ways, it was an easy decision for them.

When Petunia gave Harry his permission slip, he again could not quite believe it. Now he had a real chance at seeing his first friend. The only other problem, that must not happen, was that Harry now had to find a way to make sure that it was him who went to Hermione's place and not the other way around. But Harry could not find anyway for him to make that certain, he thought about using magic, but he had no idea what he could do and he would not have been strong enough anyway. As it stood, all Harry could do was hope.

After the teachers got all the permissions slips back from their pupils, they started to organise the meetings. They decided who went to whom. It was quite a experience for the teachers, as it was way more to organise than a normal school excursion, which themselves were no small thing. But they enjoyed it more, as they wanted to make their pupils happy and to let them have fun, as they knew from their own time at school, that it was not always what one could consider fun times.

Harry had luck, as the teachers had decided that Harry would visit Hermione. The decision was based on the fact, that Dudley's pen pal family also had two children in this program and the teachers tried to divide such families. Since Hermione was an only child it was logical that harry would go to Hermione and Dudley would stay home.

The Dursley's were partly happy with that decision. Of course they would like to have control what the boy would do and say. On the other hand, they now had a day where they did not had to take care of him and could pamper Dudley and his new friend. They felt sorry for the Grangers to have to put up with the Freak, but decided to enjoy a normal day in their life.

The Grangers, on the other hand, were happy that they would have the chance to get to know the first real friend their daughter had. Dean and Emma Granger, the parents of Hermione, knew of the problem their daughter had, when it came to making friends. They even got called to the schools a few times concerning the bully Hermione had to endure due to her intelligence.

Four weeks later in the Granger household:

It was an unusual day at the Granger's, as this was the day when Harry would come over. It was the first time, since Hermione was four years old, that she would have a friend at her house. Since the children in her class always made fun of her, there was no one she could invite over. As such it is understandable that Hermione had trouble sleeping and could not sit still, because of her excitement.

She was really looking forward to meeting her first real friend. She just hoped that this day would not end in a total disappointment and Harry would be like the other kids her age. That he would make fun of her and call her names. It was a fear Hermione had since the first letter she exchanged with Harry. Of course in his letter he seemed like a nice boy and he had not commented on her love for books, but what would happen when they would meet. That was something Hermione was about to find out.

Privet Drive, same time:

The day at the Dursley's was also not something they would call usual. Not that the Dursley's were against it in anyway, as it would be a day less where they would have to put up with the Freak. Even though they were a bit uncomfortable that he would be speaking with someone outside of their family unsupervised, especially that he would be going to the girl he had written the letter to. But they had little choice in that matter, if they wanted to keep up their appearance of being normal.

Harry himself was about as excited as he was, when he discovered that magic was real and that he could to magic. He tried to make it look like everyday, as he did not want to give the Dursley's any reason to stop him from going to Hermione, but under the surface, he was a excited little boy, which would be more like his age. He needed to really concentrate himself to not ruin the breakfast while he was preparing it.

After breakfast Harry went back to his cupboard and tried to make himself representable, with the little broken mirror he had in there. He may not give much about his appearance, but it was one thing he learned from his Uncle when he had dinner with his work colleagues. Appearance was what made quite a bit about the first impression. He wanted to make a good first expression since he wanted to hold onto this friendship.

After he made himself as representable as it was possible, he was on his way out when Vernon, who stayed home this day, because he wanted to make sure that this day was perfect for his Dudley, came to him and said:

"Hear here Boy. If I hear anything about any lies you told about us, or anything that shows us in a bad light, you will regret that. Did I make myself clear?"

Harry shakily nodded. He knew what Vernon meant and he hoped that there would happen nothing that would make Vernon even so much as think that he could have done anything like that. He was afraid what Vernon had in mind as punishment. With that warning in mind Harry made his way to the bus, to make his way to the Grangers. He needed to take the bus as the Dursley's would never even consider driving him there.

As the bell rang at the Granger's you could hardly blink and Hermione was at the door. She opened the door and than she saw Harry for the time in her life, but would it also be the last time? There was a small boy, who she knew was nine years old. He wore a shirt which seemed to be a bit too large for him, as seemed the jeans he was wearing. She saw the emerald green eyes, which were framed by some nondescript glasses. She invited Harry into her home and started the introduction, as her parents also had arrived at the door.

"Hello I am Hermione Granger and this are my parents, Emma and Dean Granger."

As she introduced her family everyone shook Harry's hand. Harry's first impression of the family was a nice one. As the door opened he saw a small girl a little taller than him dressed in a blue jeans and a yellow shirt. Her parents who arrived shortly after, had a way more friendly expression on their faces, than Harry was used to from his relatives.

"Hello, I am Harry Potter."

After introduction were made, they moved to the sitting room. Emma was the first to break the silence, once they were seated, she was curious how Harry arrived at their home, as she did not see his parents, something that found she very confusing.

"Where are your parents, Harry. I had hoped to speak a bit with them."

If she was honest she wanted to speak with them to make sure that Harry could come over more often, if this day worked out as she hoped. She saw the problems her daughter had, when it came to making friend. Emma's problem was just, that there was not much she could do, besides being there for her daughter. Now that Hermione may had found a friend, she would try to make sure that this friendship could blossom.

Harry was a little at a loss, at how he should answer this question. He knew, where this would lead, but he did not want them to find out, that he came here by bus. So he had to find an excuse for his relatives, even if he did not want to defend them from anything, the warning Vernon gave him was pretty clear.

"My parents died when I was a year old. I live with my relatives. I am sorry, but they just dropped me off, because they needed to drive back home, because they have an important appointment."

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that," answered Mrs Granger.

Although she did not say it, she was still confused about the treatment, as his relatives did not even wait to see if they were even at home. Sure this meeting was set up by the school, but still they should have waited till he was in the house. What would have been, if something had happened and harry could not come over this day. That and the way Harry said it, made Emma suspicious. But he did not say anything, as she was sorry for Harry's loss and did not want to speak about that anymore and she had no reason besides her motherly instinct, anyway.

It was something that she would keep in mind, if Harry came over more often. It was no use to worry over it anyway, if this was the only time they would see Harry. While Emma was musing over her thoughts, Harry and Hermione talked about what they want to do. First was a tour through the house.

They started on the first level, there was the living room in which they were just sitting. Than there was the kitchen and that was it for the first level. Hermione showed Harry her room and her collection of books. This started a conversation about books, that they both had read. This took quite some time, but it also served to break the nervousness and to bring them a little closer together. Hermione's parents were delighted to see them so engrossed about the talk, that they did not even realize how much time passed.

For Hermione it was refreshing to have a nice talk about some of the books. The others in her class either just teased her. There was one time when one of her classmates pretended to be interested, but her only goal was to get the book, which she than hid and laughed as Hermione tried to find it. It was one of the times, when she learned that her classmates did not like her. The fact that Harry also had read quite a bit of books and could actually knew what he talked about, just reinforced her determination to hold onto this friendship.

For Harry it was just nice to have someone to talk to. By the Dursley's it would earn him a beating when he asked something and as such there was no real conversation between Harry and his relatives. At school Dudley would bully anyone, who would talk with him. Of course he could talk with his teachers, but there was only so much you can talk about with a teacher and now he had someone his age to talk to. It just reinforced his determination to hold onto this friendship.

At one o'clock Emma called them for lunch. As nobody responded she went upstairs to look what they were doing. As she opened the door she saw a cute scene. Harry and Hermione lied on Hermione's bed and where reading through one of Harmonious books, probably to look up a fact. Sadly she had to make herself known, as lunch was waiting downstairs.

At lunch they just talked about random stuff. Especially Harry and Hermione were talking with each other, while the parents just enjoyed the fun their daughter had. It was refreshing for them to see their daughter behaving more like her age and not with her nose in a book for the whole day. After lunch they went outside in the garden.

The Granger's had a beautiful garden. It surrounded the house. There was a nice flower bed, as Mrs Granger's hobby. Harry, who was forced by his relatives to take care of the garden, saw that it was taken care of with great care. The garden also had a swing, which was one of the few things Hermione played with, besides her books. But the most impressive thing, was a beautiful big tree which stood exactly in the middle of the garden. It gave a nice spot to just lean against the trunk and enjoy the day.

It happened here that Harry and Hermione had there first time at playing tag. It started with Hermione taking the initiative and tagging Harry, before running away. At first Harry was shocked by the contact, as every physical contact he had till this point was with harmful intention. But he caught himself pretty fast and it seemed as if nobody noticed his hesitation and he started to chase Hermione. For the rest of the day, Harry and Hermione changed between playing tag, swinging and when they needed a break, they lay besides the big tree and spoke about the books.

Sadly every good time has to come to an end. As it got late in the afternoon Harry needed to make his way back to Privet Drive. He would have loved to stay at Hermione's house for longer, but he knew he had to go back, or there would be problems with his relatives.

A/N:

And that was the 2nd Chapter, I hope to hit Hogwarts with the next chapter, but well originally it was planned for this one, but it grew beyond my wildest dream. As such I can't promise anything, to when what will happen ;) . I hope you guys had fun and it you had, it would be nice of you to give a review. It make writing feeling so much better. If you guys want see, how it looks with the new chapter just look in my profile, as I will start with making weekly updates there.

Have a nice day and see you in the next chapter

Conan 55


	3. A Birthday with some surprises:

_A/N: Hello everybody. I am sorry that this chapter took so long and to be honest I still am not really satisfied. Maybe I will rework it later, we will see. But for now this it. I hope you all have a good time and like the Story so far. Well than here you go._

A Birthday with some surprises:

The English teachers from Harry and Hermione could not have imagined what their little experiment would mean for these two. They managed the first contact between these two and were responsible for the first meeting. Yet most of the aftermath was completely lost on them. For Harry and Hermione this was a life changing event and something they would not give up for anything in the world.

After Harry visited Hermione, they of course continued to write each other. But while before the letters were just about the latest books or anything they both felt comfortable with, you could now find many more things within them. They started to slowly open up to each other, especially concerning their school life. It was not rare that Hermione would after a particular hard day at school, write Harry a letter and he would respond in kind while trying to cheer her up.

Harry did not know, where his confidence came from, with which he responded to the letters. Maybe it was because, that was what he wished that someone would do to him. Still he himself did not open up that much. Since he was living with his worst tormentors, there was not really a way for him to write Hermione about it, without giving away way too much information about his home life. But even that little that he could write and Hermione reassurance helped Harry immense.

After Hermione's parents saw the effect Harry's visit had on Hermione, they decided that they wanted to have Harry over more often. This raised a problem, of course. The Dursley's would never want Harry to have a friend and would never let him stay there anymore. The first time the Grangers contacted the Dursleys to ask, if Harry could come over, was, to say the least, a mess. Since the Dursley's could not imagine someone who would want to have the Freak over, they immediately assumed, that the Grangers wanted to have Dudley over.

After that misunderstanding was cleared and the Dursley's realised it was in fact Harry, who the Grangers spoke about, the mood dropped rapidly. Vernon quickly got rude and ended the conversation. Of course Harry became to feel the displeasure of Vernon. It was not the beating that hurt Harry the most. It was the fear of never being able to see Hermione again.

Luckily for Harry the Grangers did not let that discourage them. They wanted to make their daughter happy. Mrs Granger was now certain that something was wrong with the home life of Harry but sadly there was not much they could do. They did not know, nor could they even imagine how bad it was. They thought, that there were just the problem that, the Dursley's favoured they own child.

The next call the Grangers made at the Dursleys went way better, as the Dursleys realised who exactly they were talking to. Vernon worked at Grunnings, a company that produced drills, particular were they one of the few companies that supplied the special drills needed by dentist. And coincidental the Grangers were Dentist, one of the more renowned. As such it was a bad idea to be rude to them, because should the ever come to Grunnings for new drills and then meet Vernon, there was a good chance that they would then go to one of the other firms and that was not something Vernon wanted to be responsible for.

The result was, that the Dursleys were more respectful and ready to compromise. It was Vernon important to have a good connection to potential customers, even if that meant, that the boy would have a friend, whom he would visit sometimes. Of course the Grangers did not know that, nor would Vernon tell them his thoughts. He explained his rude behaviour, by blaming Harry. He told them, that he was at that time just informed by the school that Harry made quite some trouble and he was pretty stressed of work.

Even thought the Grangers did not really believe him, as they found it hard to imagine Harry making trouble, they accepted the apology, as they wanted to see their daughter happy again and arguing with the Dursley's would not help there. True they had only met Harry for one time, but the Granger parents had a pretty good judge of character. They were able to arrange a new time when Harry would come over. To be honest, as it seemed like the Grangers would need to be the one to arrange the meetings, the kids will be at the Grangers all the time, as they did not want to send Hermione over to the Dursleys, before they could make sure, that the rudeness really was only a one time thing.

It was the start of one of the strongest friendships the world had yet to see. Tow childes deprived of friends early in their lives. One because her peers were afraid and jealous of her intelligence, the other because his relatives did not want to have him a normal life. Since the classmates of Hermione did not change their behaviour towards her, Harry would stay her only friend. As a result she clung to this one friendship with everything she had.

Harry on the other hand, never even had the chance to start another friendship. Dudley continued to harass anyone who would even as much as speak with him. The only reason he left her alone, was because on the one hand Hermione never was at the Dursleys and on the other hand Vernon did not want to have anything happen that could interfere with a potential business between the Grangers and Grunnings. This would be Harry's only friendship, too, which made him too cling on it.

It continued to the point, where Harry and Hermione were inseparable, when Harry was over at Hermione's house. The visits also grew in frequency, to a point where Harry visited Hermione nearly every week.

For nearly a year the friendship grew and flourished. They shared everything between each other. The were not really any secrets between them. There were only really two secrets these two had. The first one was that Harry was able to do magic, which was only a secret, because Harry did not know how he would be able to tell Hermione that. The second one being the severity of the abuse Harry had to endure. Since Harry now had a friend the Dursleys were way more careful about the way, they treated him. Of course he still earned his beatings but it was the timings that Vernon abused, so that the Grangers never really found out how hard it was.

* * *

September the following year:

It was early in September, when Harry received the invitation to Hermione's birthday. It was clear that Harry would be with Hermione at her birthday, but they wanted to let her write the invitation, as it was the only one since quite some time. For Harry it was clear that he wanted to be there and he was pretty sure that his relatives would not say anything against it. Somehow they stopped their normal abuse, when it came to the Grangers.

Harry did not knew, why they behaved so differently when it came to the Grangers, but he was sure not going to ask and jeopardize it. His thoughts were on a different theme anyway. He needed to find a present for his friend. He wanted to give her something that would show just how thankful he was for this friendship and how important it was to him.

Harry thought about what he wanted to give to Hermione. It should be something that described the importance of the friendship, but it could not be something too big, as Harry did not get any money from the Dursleys and he was not yet old enough to make money himself. As such Harry thought, that maybe he would be able to use his magic to make Hermione a nice present.

He needed to make the present from scratch, as he had no money to buy anything. His best bet therefore was to make something, with the skills he learned while he was forced to take care of the garden. He was able to get some time free, where he just went outside and walked through the neighbourhood. Specifically he walked to the playground, that was near the house. He did not know if he would be able to realise his idea, between his abilities in the garden and his magical abilities. Of course he continued to train everyday, which resulted in quite some progress, but he was not sure if it would be enough for what he had in mind.

He walked around the playground for quite some time. He had an idea what he wanted to make. For it to work though he needed quite a bit of wood, time, luck and magic. After 2 hours of wandering around he thought that he had enough branches. He went back to his prison, as he had started to call it, since he experienced the living arrangement at the Grangers. He went straight to his cupboard and hid the branches there. After that he went to do his daily chores and make dinner.

Harry was able hid one of the sharper knives, which he used to prepare dinner. He took it back into the cupboard with him. There he tool the branches and laid them before him on the mattress. After that he took a deep breath and began to concentrate himself. He wanted to fuse the branches together to have a big block of wood. He knew it would not be easy, he did not know, if he could even do it, but he wanted to try. It was for Hermione, his first and best friend after all.

It took him a good portion of the night to do what he wanted. After he was satisfied, he was barely able to hold his eyes open. He laid down and was instantly asleep. Yes he managed to fuse the wood together, but it took him a lot of time and energy to make it. When he awoke at the next day, he could not wait until it was evening and he was able to work on the present.

As everyone went to bed at Privet Drive Number 4 , Harry was inside his cupboard and started to work on the wood block. He wanted to make it into a tableau that showed him and Hermione. It would be a difficult thing to do, but if he was able to pull it off, it would be the perfect present. He knew he would be able to do it, as he had quite an advantage. He used his imagination to let him see what it should look like in the end. After that he wanted to use his magic, to draw the picture into the magic.

He used his magic, to make the wood with two different kind of toughness. The part, that Harry wanted to remove from the block would be way easier to cut, than the part, that should stay there, to make the tableau. Now everything that was left to do, was to cut the soft parts away and he would have his presents. It took Harry about a week and a half to finish his present. After Harry was finished he was quite surprised at how nice it looked. It showed him and Hermione standing and smiling at each other.

On September the 19. Harry packed his present for Hermione and started the familiar way over to Hermione. This day was different from his other visits, as it was Hermione's birthday and it was the first time that he was invited for a sleep over, which meant that Harry would have two days free of his relatives, always something to look forward to.

"Hi Harry," was the greeting Harry received, from a smiling Mrs Granger. She invited Harry into the house. "Hello Mrs Granger" came from Harry. Than he went inside to search for Hermione. It did not take long to find her, as she was standing right in the the living room waiting for him.

"Hey Hermione, Happy Birthday." Harry did not know exactly how to handle this situation, as it was his first birthday party, where he was invited. Harry gave Hermione his present, which he sadly was not able to gift-warp it. He did not meet Hermione's eyes, as he was quite nervous, if he had gotten the right present.

"I hope you like it"

"It is beautiful, Harry" Hermione said with big eyes. She carefully took it from him and placed it to the others presents, she got from her parents. After that she ran back to him to engulf him in a hug, to show him how much she liked his present. Sadly because of Harry's upbringing he was not used to these kind of contacts and instantly stiffened, as Hermione suddenly hugged him. Slowly Harry was able to free himself, of his frozen state and tentatively moved his arms around her. It would take him quite some time, until he would be comfortable with such kind of contact.

Of course his reaction to the hugging of Hermione did not go unnoticed by her parents. They were after all pretty sure that Harry's home life was not the best Sadly they had no way to do anything about it. The only thing they could do was to make sure that everytime Harry was at their house, he would feel welcomed. After that small incident the birthday of Hermione went pretty well. They went to a cinema and after that Hermione could decide where they would eat.

Altogether it was a really nice birthday party, if you would ask Hermione, she would tell you that it was the best party she had yet. That it was due to Harry being there, would be something that she would openly admit. When it was time for the children to go to bed, Harry would for the first time he remembered sleeping in a real room. He would be sleeping on a guest bed, that the Grangers put into Hermione's room.

As Harry awoke in the next morning, he was confused. He was lying on a comfortable bed and not in his cupboard. Slowly he realised where he was and why he was here. As he looked at the clock that was on the bedside table of Hermione he saw, that it was 6 o'clock. It was a normal time for Harry to wake up. Normally his aunt would be up by now to let him out of his cupboard that he could start breakfast.

As he was not at the Grangers Harry did not really know what to do. He was sure that he would not be able to go back to sleep. He decided that he wanted to do something nice for the Grangers, by making them breakfast. He went to the kitchen and started to fry the beacon. After that he started to make the eggs. Slowly the aroma spread though the house. As the Grangers came down to the table they found themselves in front of a full English breakfast.

Mrs Granger was confused, as she saw the breakfast table. She was pretty sure that her husband did not make that, as he woke later than her. The last time Hermione tried to make breakfast, well let's just say, it was luck that the kitchen survived. This however, looked as if it was done by someone who was comfortable in the kitchen. She was pretty shocked as she saw Harry coming out of the kitchen, to put the last touches onto the breakfast.

"Did you make that breakfast, Harry?"

"Yes Mrs Granger, I wanted to thank you, for being so nice to me."

"It was nothing, we are happy that you and Hermione are getting along so good. If you don't mind asking, where did you learn to cook, it is not something normally done by a ten year old."

Harry froze for a moment. He knew he should have expected this question, but he just wanted to do something nice for them and completely forgot, that not everyone knew that he was forced to cook for the Dursleys since he was six years old.

"I am helping my aunt, when she cooks and learned it that way."

It was close enough to the truth that he was sure he could get it through without lying outright. It seemed like Mrs Granger believed him, as she stopped the questions and sat down. Even thought the food looked pretty good, The Granger parents were not sure what to expect, after all it was cooked by a ten year old.

After everyone was seated, Emma started and tried some of the eggs. It was the least she could do, after all Harry did go through the trouble of making the whole breakfast and who knows, maybe it was as good as it looked. After the first bite she pretty surprised at how good it tasted. Something that did not go unnoticed by the rest of the family and they too started to enjoy the breakfast.

After a round of compliments, which caused Harry's face to become red of embarrassment, as he was not used to praise for anything, the breakfast continued like normal. After about half an hour it was interrupted by the door bell. Mrs Granger went to answer. As she opened the door she saw herself opposite of a stern looking elder woman. She wore a black robe and introduced herself:

"Hello, I am Minerva McGonagall. I am a Professor at Hogwarts and I would like to speak with you and your husband. It concerns your daughter Hermione."

Mrs: Granger had no real choice but to invite the weird Professor into the house. She led them to the breakfast table. As soon as they came, the group changed from the breakfast table to the more comfortable living room. As they were seated Mrs McGonagall began:

"Hello as I already said I am Minerva McGonagall and I am a teacher at Hogwarts. I am here to offer Hermione a place at Hogwarts and explain a few things. But before I continue, this is something that I can only discuss with the Granger family and I kindly ask that everyone else please leaves this room. I will explain the reason of the secrecy."

As Harry did not want to cause any problems he stand up and went upstairs, to read a few things. It did not really bother him, as he was sure Hermione would tell him what this was about anyway after they were finished. The exact same thought, were also present in the heads of the three Grangers sitting in the living room, it caused the elder Grangers to let a little chuckle.

After Harry had left the room McGonagall began:

"I am sorry, to interrupt your breakfast and that I sent your guest away, but this is something that is necessary. As you probably already realised, Hogwarts is not a normal school. It is a magical school."

This caused quite a few unbelievable gasps around the family. McGonagall just went on.

"Yes. Your daughter is a witch. Not some trick wizard, but a real witch and Hogwarts will teach her how to control magic. If you do not believe me, I would like to ask you something. Where there not sometimes things happening, which you could not explain? "

To prove her point she took out her wand and cast a leviosa at the table, to let it fly a little bit. It seemed as if she got her point across. She ended the explanation with.

"To explain the fact, why your guest had to leave, the wizarding world is a secret to all non magical people and this should stay that way, which is why it is forbidden to talk to anyone about magic, when they do not know about it already or a magical themselves."

After McGonagall had explained that there was a pained expression mixed with amusement on the faces of the parents. They knew that there was no chance that Hermione would not tell Harry about this. But that could cause troubles with this new world. Minerva realised after she saw the expressions on the faces.

"Is something the matter?"

Emma answered with a smile:

"Not really, but there will be one more person who will know what happened here. There is no way Hermione is going to keep something this large from Harry. But he will be the only one."

McGonagall wanted to explain them that they could not tell anybody about this, when she realised the name. As she was thinking about it, the boy that left earlier did have green eyes, she did not think anything by it earlier, but now she had to ask.

"This boy is not accidentally called Harry Potter, or?"

This caused some wonder under the Grangers.

"How do you know his name?"

This was asked by Hermione. She was pretty sure that Harry did not know this woman or of Hogwarts. After all he would have told her. If she was with his relatives, than Hermione was sure that she would not go to that Hogwarts, as her parents, even though they tried to hide it, made it pretty clear that they did not like them.

"I was the teacher of Lily and James Potter, the parents of Harry Potter and I was one of their good friends."

Mrs Granger was not exactly pleased by this answer. She was already sure that Harry did not have a good home life and if this woman really was a such good friend of Harry's parents, than either had she not checked up on the son of her friends or which would be worse she did know about it. Than there was the thing about magic. She needed to discuss this with Hermione and Dean. If this was true that Harry's parents were at this school, she wanted to know, if Harry knew about magic. As this was things she wanted to discuss inside her family she polity said:

"Be that as it may. I would like to discuss this school and other things with my family. How can we contact you, if we decide, that Hermione will attend Hogwarts?"

McGonagall knew, when it was time to leave. As such she gave them the pamphlets for non magical Students, a description on how to enter Diagon Alley and the standard Hogwarts letter. After that she made her exit. After McGonagall had left the house, it was quite for a moment. Each had do digest the news. After a while Hermione went to fetch Harry, as she wanted to tell him, what had happened here and she was quite sure that her mother had a few questions for him.

Harry meanwhile had, after he left the living, gone to Hermione room. He wanted to train a bit in magic, as he was not able to do this the last evening. He started with letting a few small things fly and than went to heavier objects. After he finished his levitation exercise he wanted to start with summoning, as he sensed Hermione coming up the stairs. It was a little trick he learned while training at the Dursleys.

It acted like a sensor. Alerting him if someone came near him. He knew it was Hermione because he realised that each person somehow felt different. He needed to spend quite a bit time with the person to recognise the feeling. Anyway, as he felt Hermione coming he stopped with doing magic and put everything away.

"Hey Harry, can you come to the living room, please?"

"Of course, be right there."

After Harry finished cleaning up, he stood up and went downstairs, curious what the woman wanted from his friend. Coming downstairs he saw, that they were still sitting in the living room. On the table were some letters that were not there before. Not knowing what exactly happened he just sat down and waited for someone to say something. The silence was broken by Hermione, who was excited about learning something new that she just could not sit still.

"I am going to learn magic! Can you believe it."

That shocked Harry quite hard. It seemed as if there were more people like him. At least if it is the same thing, as he did. He looked to Emma as it seemed like she had a question.

"Yes Hermione is right Harry. The woman invited Hermione to a school called Hogwarts, where she would learn to control her magic. The woman, who called herself Minerva McGonagall, also knew your name. She claimed that she was a friend of your parents. I wanted to ask you, if you knew her or something about that magic."

To say Harry was shocked would have been quite the understatement. There was someone who claimed to be a friend of his parents and it seemed was also able to do magic. Which leads to the assumption that his parents also were able to do magic. But why did then nobody check on him. These were question that Harry wanted answered, but they were for later as he was still required to answer the question.

"I have never heard of a McGonagall."

Now came the hard part, as he would not lie to Hermione or her parents, but how could he explain that he knew about magic, without upsetting. This was the only secret Harry had from Hermione, besides his actual treatment by the Dursleys, even though he thought that the parents at least suspected that there was something up. He thought that action spoke louder that words and while explaining, he started to levitate the table.

"As for magic. Yes I know about magic, but I did not know that there were more people. I discovered it while in school and than learned to control it."

That was as far as he came. Before a crying Hermione ran up the stairs and they heard a door being slammed shut. Harry did not quite know what he should do, he predicted that something like this would happen, but that did not make it hurt any less. Mr Granger just smiled at Harry.

"Don't worry. I understand that you did not tell her anything, as you did not know how we would react. To be honest, I can't even tell you, what would have happened, when you would have told us before today. I will talk to her."

With that he stood up and went to the stairs. As he knocked he heard a muffled:  
"Go away"

You could hear in her voice that she still cried. Dean just opened the door and went inside. Hermione lay on her bed, her head in her pillow. Mr Granger sat beside her and said:

"Come on Hermione. Why did you run?"

"I thought that Harry was my friend. But he did not tell me about magic."

"What did you want him to do? He could not just come up and say: Hey you know what, magic is real. How do you think we would have reacted? You should be happy that you can now learn magic together with your friend instead of alone, he looked quite hurt back there."

Slowly Hermione's common sense started to make itself known again. Of course she was hurt, that Harry did not tell her about magic, but she began to see the sense behind the words of her father. She realised how stupid it was from her. How should have Harry told her about magic, without fear that she would call him crazy. She was still not really realising what this would mean for her. And it would be more fun to learn magic together with Harry instead of alone.

Slowly Hermione made her way down again. As she saw Harry she began to apologise:

"Sorry Harry, I should not have overreacted that much."

"It is ok. I wanted to tell you so badly, but I did not know how you or your parents would react."

"Can you show me, what you are able to do with magic? After all you did train it, did you not?"

"What makes you think, that I may have tried to train it?"

The only response Harry got was a look, that told him, how likely it was that Hermione would believe him, if he told her that he did not try to develop that ability. That girl just knew him too well already. That and he did not really want to hide it from Hermione anyway. Now that he knew that there were more people like him and that his best friend was one of these, he wanted to see what they could do with it. Also he was interested, what this teacher really knew about him or his parents.

Emma and Dan were happy, that they were able to work around that. There was no friendship that did not have its hard moments, but if they were able to work them out, the friendship would be so much deeper. They decided that they would go to Diagon Alley that afternoon and see what the wizarding world had to offer.

_A/N:_

_And that was that. If you would be so kind and leave a review. It makes writing more fun. I will start answering to reviews, but only if you are registered. See you next time, which hopefully will be faster than this time._

_Conan 55_


	4. Diagon Alley

_A/N: Alright version 1.5 of chapter 4 is now finished and as I am posting this together with chapter 5, have fun reading. (Updated Version Posted on 20.04.2013)_

Chapter 4, Diagon Alley:

After all the excitement, they slowly returned to breakfast. The conversation of course turned fast to the recent events. After all, it was not everyday, that your understanding of the world got changed turned upside down. As they slowly went back to breakfast, they discussed the whole magical world thing. It was hard to understand how a complete world could be hidden, but then again they did not know what exactly was possible with magic. This was a thing where Harry could maybe help the Grangers.

Harry himself was maybe not that much, but certainly surprised enough, that there was a whole world out there, which was able to do magic. But that needed to wait. He promised Hermione, that he showed, what he was able to do with magic. As the breakfast came to an end, it was time to fulfill this promise. He stood up and said:

"First off, I want to say that I am about as surprised as you that there is a whole world hidden. I discovered magic about 2 years ago. I accidentally appeared onto the roof of my school. After that I tried to experiment. I wanted to see if I could control it and if so what I would be able to do with it. I managed to get a few tricks."

With that he started just like McGonagall did, by lifting a few things.

"I also used magic for your present, Hermione, but it was very exhausting and I thought that was about as much as you can do with it. It seemed I was wrong."

Hermione and Emma, of course, were the first one to spot the difference between the display of Harry and that teacher that. Hermione instantly asked, as she wanted to be able to do magic herself.

"Harry you did not use a want like that teacher earlier."

"Well considering I did not know something like this even existed until about an hour ago I was not able to go and find one. As far as I could tell, the factor if you are able to do something does lies in your will and imagination."

Hermione of course instantly tried it. She imagined the to do the same thing Harry just did. She wanted to let the chair, on which McGonagall sat before, fly. As nothing happened for a while, she looked disappointed. And that was the start, of Harry trying to teach Hermione everything he knew, or better everything he found out about magic.

That took the better part of the day, as they all got lost in the excitement that came up, when Hermione was able to do her first spell. It was only a small thing that was flying through the air, but it was the breakthrough that signaled her first controlled magic. Sadly when they realized, how long they were working on it, it was too late to go to Diagon Alley, as Harry had to go home.

It was not even a week later, when Harry got a call from Hermione. She was behaving a little strange, as if she was excited, but at the same time worried. The only thing Harry could get out of her, was that they needed to talk and that it concerned the Magical World. Of course, since Harry had just been at the Grangers, they would be a problem, but Emma had said that she would take care of that. A few days later Harry found himself traveling the familiar way to the Grangers.

As he arrived he rang the bell and was instantly greeted by Hermione, who just ran up to him and gave him a strong hug. Harry still froze at such contact, but it was getting better each time. Luckily Hermione did not realize it or just did not care. After Harry recovered they went inside and as soon as Harry saw that Emma was also home he knew that is was serious. Why else would she not be at work, it was not as this would be the first time they would be alone.

Emma just wanted to be there just in case. They did not know, if Harry knew anything about what they discovered as they went into Diagon Alley last week. Of course he said that he did not know anything about the Magical World, but maybe he knows how his parents died and if not, that she wanted to be there for him. He just grew onto her hearth more, each time he was there.

Harry and Hermione went to her room. As soon as they were there, Hermione started to explain:

"I wanted to talk to you, because I found some things that might interest you. You see my Parents and me went to Diagon Alley last week and well... When we were home I started reading the few books that my mum bought me."

Here Harry had to chuckle, as he looked around in her room. There was no way he would describe all the new books that were there as, a few. But Hermione was too focused to realize it:

"Well and a few of them mention you. At least they mention a Harry Potter, that has a lighting bolt scar on his forehead and I do not know, but what is the chance that there is another Harry Potter with exactly the same scar as you?"

Harry did not know hoe to react to this, if there was even a right reaction. Sadly that was not all of it as Hermione continued explaining what she had found.

"That is not all, though. There is also described how your parents died. Apparently there was some kind of war in the magical world. The one who wanted to take over the magical world is called

"You know who", I could not find the right name anywhere. But it says that your parents were with some people, who were leading the fight against this "You know who". Oh Harry I am so sorry, but he killed your parents, before he wanted to kill you. Somehow his curse rebounded of you and destroyed him instead. That is where you got your scar, according to the books."

"But my relatives said, they died in a car crash..."

It came as a whisper from Harry. He knew he should not be surprised that they lied to him, but somehow it still hurt. He did not even realize that Hermione once again had him in a strong hug. He just let himself go and started to cry. It gradually became stronger as all the grief of his parents dieing and everything else, that was suppressed by the Dursley household, just became too much for the child. Hermione just continued to hold him, she did not really have much experience on being on the comforting side, but did just what her parents always did when she was crying.

Luckily Emma choose that moment to look after the children. Call it maternal instinct, but she somehow felt that something was off. She went to them and embraced them both. She knew what Hermione wanted to tell Harry and was not surprised to find him crying. She would be more surprised if he took it well. It took quite some time for harry to calm down. Nobody spoke for a while and it was Harry who did first. Though it was not about his parents as he first wanted to realize what that meant, before he talked with somebody.

"What does that mean, when there are books with me in them?"

"Do not think that it means anything to us, you are still Harry, my best friend."

All Harry could do was to relish in the feeling of comfort that he felt from the two women, who were the most important women in his life. He was comforted by the thought that he still had his best friend. The only thing he know needed to do, was to find out, just how much he featured in these books and what this meant for him. This may seem like some thoughts that were out of his age, but Harry had no other choice than to mature way too fast, than he was normally meant to.

They began to discuss just what they should do. That Emma was now part of the conversation, was good as they now had the opinion of a adult in their discussion. That made the discussion way more foresighted, as Emma was able to see the complications, considering Hermione was only eleven years old, while Harry was still ten. They decided that they would try to go to Diagon Alley, to see just how famous Harry was there. After that they would try to bring Harry with them to Diagon Alley. They wanted to wait a bit, to see if they needed to hide Harry, so he would not be recognized too fast.

After they discussed what they would do about Harry, Hermione still had a few questions about magic:

"Harry, on another theme. I started to read into the books that we have to buy for the first year and I was confused. Each book I read talked about specific wand movements and incantation that you needed to do, for the spell to work. But when you showed me how you did it, you said nothing about it and as we saw it did work. Also the books say, that it is extremely difficult to perform magic without a wand and that this was first taught in year seven and beyond."

The only thing Harry could do was to answer as honest as he could:

"As you know I only learned of the magical world the same time as you. I still was not at this Diagon Alley. As far as I perform magic, I showed you the way I was able to do it. Maybe there is a easier or just other way to do it. I just showed you the way I did it. I do not know anything about wand movements or incarnations."

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you, if you could continue to teach me how you do it. It could be useful as you do not always have your wand in your hand."

It was only a half truth the other half being, that she wanted to spend more time with Harry. Of course the fact, that her parents could watch her doing magic this way, was a added bonus as she was still not able to use her wand to perform magic in any way. They spent the rest of the day the same way they did before all of this happened, with the small difference that Harry spent at least 2 hours show Hermione how to he used magic. Hermione of course tried everything and she was pretty successful.

It took quite some time before the Grangers came back to talk about magic. It was about 2 months later and on a weekend, for which the Grangers arranged, that Harry would stay at their house. It was a surprised Harry, who was told just how famous he was in the Magical World. There was just about anything that could be bought with Harry's name on it.

It was decided that, since they already knew what they would need for Hogwarts, that they would take Harry with them and buy him the things. The fact that he did not yet had his invitation to Hogwarts, was ignored, since they were pretty sure that he would get his, why else would the teacher ask about him.

The decision that Hermione would attend Hogwarts, was made, because they concluded, that Hermione somehow needed to learn to control it. That and the fact that she would be together with Harry was the last reason they needed. After all, if it did not work out, they could surely remove her from Hogwarts.

Saturday dawned and it was a excited pair of children, who came down to breakfast. After all would be the first time for Harry to see the Magical World and Hermione was just excited to show Harry, all the things she saw there. As they did not want, that everyone recognized Harry, they decided to change his appearance. Luckily Harry was able to use magic for that, he even managed to hide his scar, even if it would only be temporarily. So began the journey to the Leaky Cauldron in London.

As they arrived, Hermione was the first, as she grabbed the Hand of her mother and one of Harry's. She pulled them inside. As they entered the pub, Harry thought that he was pulled into one of the fantasy books that featured witches. The room was filled with quite some people, who all wore black robes and these fancy hats, you know these pointy hats, that were always associated with magical people.

The room itself surely had seen better days. It was illuminated by a small oil lamp and just seemed old. Hermione pulled them to the barman, whom she asked kindly if he could let them into the Diagon Alley. She did not yet have her wand with her, because she wanted to wait until she could use it, before carrying it with her. Else she could lose it, before she was even on her way to Hogwarts.

Entering Diagon Alley for the first time was something that Harry, would not forget. He was literally stepping into another world. Each side was plastered with shops. The street was not as filled as it would be in the summer, because there was no school shopping done, besides the Grangers. The shop windows were filled with the weirdest things. There was a shop, were you could buy cauldrons another which was filled purely with wands. The only things that was somehow familiar, was the ice cream shop that stood in the middle of the Alley.

But the most impressive sight, was the complete white marble building at the end of the Alley. It was also their first target. It was Gringotts the bank of the Magical world. Since the Grangers needed to change money they went to Gringotts. The doors were guarding by fiercer looking creatures, which were about half as tall as a adult human, but each had a dangerous looking axe in one hand and a sturdy looking shield in the other.

On the right side was a plate which read:

"Enter, stranger but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there."

_(Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)_

Upon entering the group went to the nearest taller and waited in the queue. After they were about half way through the queue, they were approached by two goblin guards. One of the guards asked:

"If you could follow us, please."

No one of the group knew what was happening. It was the first time the Grangers were approached by the goblins. But since they had no real reason and ground to object, considering the guards were armed with pretty deadly looking battleaxes, they followed the guards. They were led to a door at the side and through a hallway. After five minutes of silent walking, it was Emma who asked:

"Excuse me, but where are you taking us and why?"

The goblin who asked the to follow answered, without stopping:

"I am sorry, but I am not allowed to tell you that. I can assure you that your are in no way in danger or trouble. Our director asked us to escort Mr. Potter here to his office and since you are with him you were asked to join. Here we are."

They were standing before a rich decorated double door, on each side of the door there was another pair of guards. One of the guards knocked loudly. From inside one could hear a deep "Enter". The guards opened the door and as soon as they were inside the goblins fell on their knees. The Grangers and Harry were unsure on how to behave and as such used the guards as an example, but instead of falling to their knees they bowed. Even though this was the most powerful goblin inside Gringotts, they were still customer in the bank.

To say Ragnarok was shocked by this display, was an understatement. It was rare that wizards even showed the tiniest bit of respect. That they bowed to a goblin, to the wizards just a bit above an animal, was frankly never heard of. It seemed like this was a special group of humans, which made his fears of the meeting go down quite a bit. He motioned them to stand up:

"I am Ragnarok, the Director of Gringotts. Please have a seat as we have much to discuss. You probably wonder, why I wanted to talk to you. Well, it has to do with Mr. Potter here and what happened about 10 years ago. According to my information is Miss Granger a Muggleborn witch. If you could tell me, what you know about Voldemort, so I know where I do have to start with my explanation."

The group sat in comfortable chairs and it was Hermione, who answered, as she was the one who had the most knowledge. Everything she did in her free time, since her birthday, was reading the books she got in Diagon Alley. Of course there was always the problem of just how much you could trust somebody you only just met, but there had to be a reason he was the Director of a bank, right?

"Well. We do not really know anything about him. We first learned that I was a witch about 2 months ago, at my eleventh birthday. I know that there was some kind of war and that he was the leader of the ones who wanted to overthrow the government. That and that he was stopped by Harry, because a spell rebounded off of him."

Ragnarok mulled over what he had heard. Given it was not much, but he still had to decide just what he was going to tell them. After he came to a decision, he said something in a different language to one of the guards. The guard bowed and left the room. After that he once again addressed the group.

"It seemed that there is way more to explain than I thought. In essence what you said is correct, but there is way more behind it. Let's start with Voldemort himself. He was the leader of the pureblood movement. In the magical word there are people who find it important, what "type" of blood you are. There are the Purebloods, which are people who come out of several generation of magic users. Than there are halfbloods. Someone is called a halfblood, when he is neither a Muggleborn or a pureblood. Harry for example, his father was a pureblood while is mother was a Muggleborn. Muggleborn are witches or wizards with two non magical parents, like Miss Hermione Granger here.

This war, what you correctly said can be compared to what Hitler did in Germany. The aim of Voldemort was, to take control of Great Britain and than make sure that Purebloods would rule the country, while halfbloods of Muggleborns would be either killed or used as slaves, while all other would be killed our of principle. Sadly these racial views are still prominent in magical Britain. You will meet people who think that they are better, just because their parentage.

Coming to the reason I wanted to speak with you. As you can guess, we goblins were nothing more than animals to Voldemort. At the beginning it was not that bad, as we were still needed, for the economy not to completely collapse. We were mostly ignored, primarily for two reasons. First was like I said, they still needed us and second Voldemort did not want to split his forces between fighting the ministry and us. It changed the day at which the Ministry of Magic more or less fell into Voldemort hands.

After that, they started to hunt us down. Started killing every goblin they could find, outside of our bank, or Territory. Because of the contract we have with the Ministry, we could not close the bank and they did not dare to attack us inside it, as we would have been allowed to defend us there. Even though many no goblin wanted to go anywhere outside of our Territory, there were just some things that we needed to do and we had no way of defending these goblins.

To say the least we had a big problem. Breaking the contract would lead to some sort of strong punishment, we only have a vague idea of what would have happen. But doing nothing was not something we could consider continuing. We decided that we would close the bank and react with force to any murder. It was the day before we wanted to close the bank, that Voldemort decided to attack the Potters. As such we were lucky that we did not had to find out what the contract would have forced on us.

Now we come to the reason, why I wanted to see Mr Potter. I wanted to thank him. I know that it is not something you want to celebrate or even remember as it is the reason you lost your parents. We are sorry for your loss and can only hope to help you in the future, which starts, but does not end, with an improved service here at Gringotts. First of all, every vault will be free of charge. We will also not charge you for any currency changes you would like to do here at Gringotts. Now before we come to another thing, I am sure, since you did not know I want to talk to you, that you were here to get money out of your trust vault. Griphook will lead you to your vault and after that he will show you the way back here, if that is ok with you."

The mood of the group went from shock, when Ragnarok told them about the war, to outrage, when he explained a bit of the horror, that was the last war, to sorrow at the Grangers and sadness by Harry, when it came to the part about Harry's parents. When he then told them, that the Goblins wanted to help Harry, it went back to bit of a normal until the last shock, that Harry had a vault inside Gringotts.

"Thank you for your offer, Director. This is quite a lot to take in. I have to say though that I did not know that I had anything inside Gringotts. Is there anything else, that I do not know of?"

Since no one could find anything bad in what the Director told them, the Grangers let Harry deal with it, as it was after all his stuff. Of course they would interfere, if they thought there was something wrong. What they did not know was, that Harry was pretty good in dealing with such things. He may not have the best home life, which is quite an understatement, but Vernon did talk a lot about his work and his dealing with the bank. Since Harry normally had to cook at these times he heard pretty much everything that Vernon talked about. Harry choose to remember these things as they may become helpful, if he ever had to deal with any of these things.

"The Potter family has in fact a substantial holdings inside Gringotts. Everything is sorted into three different vaults. The first one is the main family vault. It contains the money. Sadly you will only be able to access it, when you are Head of the Potter family, which means either the age of 17 or an early emancipation, as you are the last Potter, whatever comes first. Before than I am not able to do give you any information about this vault, as it is closed off to prevent theft.

The second vault is where the items are stored. You have restricted access until you are able to become Head of the Family. The last one is your Trust vault. It is setup to cover you until you are emancipated. At the moment it contains 1000 galleons and each year it is filled up from the main family vault. As you did not know about anything, I can assume that you do not have your key?"

"I never received anything, that could be considered a key. In fact I did not receive anything from Gringotts."

Ragnarok made a few notes on his parchment. After that he said:

"Alright, we will take care of that. We will need a drop of blood from you, to make sure that the new key can't be stolen or used by anybody besides you and we will start an investigation where the old key is. As this will take a while, let's continue with an other matter. I would like to show you to one of our healers, to let them have a look at your scar and magical core. Since you are the first one to survive the killing curse, we would like to make sure that there are no lingering effects, especially with your scar."

Harry looked at Emma and Dean. He did not want to take anymore of their time up, than was necessary. Emma seeing and recognizing that look, as it was the same look he always got, when he got shy and did not dare to how did he call it "impose" more on the family. She wanted to make sure that he took that appointment for, she wanted to make sure that Harry was fine and there was no way Hermione would let them decline it. So she said:

"I think that sounds fine. I don't think anybody had yet the chance to look over it."

"Well then, if you could follow me, please."

He led them deeper into the Bank. But even here the hallways looked all the same. White walls with torches illuminating the way every few meters. After a few minutes of walking and turning corners the group came to a halt in front of a door.

"This is our Medical wing. Mr. Potter will have is check up here. To explain more thoroughly what we are going to do. Two of our healers will make a magical scan of your scar and your magical core, which will then be used for future reference. We do not expect anything to happen today, as the magical core normally continues to develop until the eleventh birthday. As such any tries to heal something, can have the opposite effect, as it could also still be something that is needed for future development."

"Why exactly to you want to do it today then? Why not wait until he is eleven or twelve?"

Ragnarok looked amused at Hermione, who posed this question. He liked it when humans critically thought for themselves. Something that is rarely seen these days.

"We would like to have a reference for the next time he visits and just because we can't to anything about his core, if there should be something. Which by the way is highly unlikely, the main reason was to look at his scar and to see if there is something."

Hermione blushed, as she realized that she just questioned the manager of the bank. She did not know what made her do it, but somehow she just wanted to protect her first and only friend.

As they entered they were surprised by the similarities between a hospital and this wing. The wing too was pretty much completely white, with privacy screens and doctors running around. The only big difference was the missing of the electronic equipment usually seen at hospitals.

Ragnarok led them to one of the beds and then left to find the healers. He returned with one goblin and one human. He indicated the man first and than the goblin while saying:

"These are the healers Dr. Kramer and Blackbeard. Dr. Kramer is specialized in magical cores while Blackbeard has quite a bit of experience with curse scars. They will be the the two who will check Mr. Potter."

They then asked Harry to lay on the bed. They explained that they would cast a few diagnostic charms to see if the scar makes any problems and to see if everything was correct with his magical core. After Harry laid down, goblin Healer started. They needed to do this after each other, because the charms would interfere with each other. After Blackbeard had finished Dr Kramer started to do the same. After some time Dr. Kramer stopped and they retreated a bit to discuss their findings.

When the Doctors came back, their faces showed concern. This more than anything did unsettle Hermione. When Blackbeard started to speak, she went to Harry, to close him in a hug.

"Mr. Potter, there seem to be some kind of curse residual in your scar. Sadly we were not able to completely identify, what exactly. I would like to do more in depth study before committing to any action. If I have your permission I would like to discuss this with a few of my colleagues to find out what it is."

Harry and the Grangers were given a bit time to discuss this, but nobody could see any real downside and the faster they knew what it was the faster it could be treated. Harry gave the goblin his approval. Then Dr. Kramer started to speak:

"Your magical core seems to be a little different than what I expected. But as your core is still in development there is no reason to worry. Every core develops different. Though I would like to see you again after your first year in Hogwarts, for another check up. This will give your core enough time to develop and Blackbeard should have some news until then."

This concluded their business in the medical wing of Gringotts, after thanking the healers and making sure that they would visit in the summer between the 1st and 2nd year of Hogwarts. While this was happening Ragnarok was taking care of the new key for the trust vault. As soon as Harry had the new key, they made their way to the trust vault.

The ride was a wild one, starting high up inside the lobby area of Gringotts, the carts brought them down relatively fast, while doing curves which would not have been allowed at any roller coaster. Emma had her eyes closed and the hand of her husband in a death grip. She was NOT fond of such fast rides. Hermione was in much of a same position but since Harry was sitting beside her, he was the one she grabbed onto, while the males were enjoying the ride. The cart stopped in front of a pretty impressive door. Ragnarok got out and asked Harry to give him the key. He opened the door and the rest of the group stood there, frozen at the sight that was showing.

There may be different opinions on what exactly is a small amount, but Ragnarok's statement that the trust vault was only a small amount of the Potter wealth, did not prepare them for what they were seeing. The largest pile of gold coins was easily as high as Harry himself. Yes they had heard it already in Ragnarok's office but seeing it was something completely different. Harry got a small bag which he filled with quite a bit of galleons. After that Ragnarok brought them back to the lobby and wished them a nice day. They could come to him if they needed something. This concluded their business inside Gringotts and they made their way to the different shops.

_Currency rates:_

_1 Galleon = 25 Sickles = 75 pound_

_1 Sickle = 50 knuts = 3 pound_

_1 knut = 6 Cent_

_A/N: Well, that is Verions 1.5 of this chapter as I just could not really stand the first version. Thanks for reading and review if you want._

Conan 55


	5. Gringotts and Diagon Part 2

_A/N: Heja. I am back. Yes I know 6 months is quite a long time and I am very sorry for the long delay. Sadly real life and a big writers block prevented me from updating earlier. The Problem was that I really did not like how I wrote the Gringotts part in Chapter 4 and as such had to rewrite it before I was able to concentrate on Chapter 5. As such I have uploaded and updated version of Chapter 4 today and ask everyone go back and read it, if you have not already. _

_Now without further ado, I present Chapter 5:_

Chapter 5:

The Group left Gringotts quite confused. The behavior of the Goblins was quite confusing and even though the director did his best to explain it to them, they still were not quite sure what exactly they should make out of this.

"Quite an interesting visit we had there. Is everything ok, Harry?"

asked Hermione, as looked a little worried at him. She knew, that being reminded at his parents death, would affect him quite a bit.

"Yeah, just a little much information,"

answered Harry. He was overwhelmed by everything Ragnarok told him. He knew about Voldemort, thanks to Hermione, but it seemed that there quite a bit that they did not know yet. That would be Harry's first goal. He wanted to know more about his family and if possible what exactly happened that Halloween night. Why did Voldemort try to kill him and why did he survive.

Hermione did not quite believe him, but decided to wait until they were home again before trying to get it out of him. Now was not the right time and she wanted to give him and herself a bit time to think over everything.

"Hermione, do you have the shopping list with you?"

"Of course, mother."

Hermione gave her mother the shopping list that came with her Hogwarts letter. Since Harry had to wait until his eleventh birthday to get his, they decided to use Hermione's letter. They began their tour by going to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There they were treated by a friendly saleswoman who, after asking if it was for Hogwarts, gave them the usual things for a first year. The shop was a little strange to Harry. Even though he had no experience of shopping, he was quite sure that normally the measure tape would not fly around on its own.

Then again the whole Alley was a little different from what you would expect to find in a shopping center. The Grangers already experienced this the first time they were here. But Harry felt as if he was thrust back into the century, which little he knew from school anyway. After buying the clothes, they made their way to the Apothecary where they bought all the stuff Harry needed for Hogwarts. This consisted out of the ingredients for potions as well as a cauldron and different gloves.

Then they went to Flourish and Blotts where they bought the books. The shop fitted perfectly in the theme of the Alley. There were ceiling high shelves standing at each wall and they were filled with leather bound books. On some books there were the most confusing symbols, others seemed to be written in a completely different language. At least some seemed to be normal books.

Coming out of the books shop seemed like quite the achievement considering Hermione had her loves for books, from her mother and they seemed quite happy to spend the rest of the day there. Sadly the dealings with the goblins and the fight to get out of Flourish and Blotts made it, that they had no more time to buy anything else.

"Seems like we have to come back for the other stuff, Harry. Since our dear women seemed to have forgotten the time inside the bookshop." Said r. Granger with a smile directed at said women. They had at least to decency to look a little ashamed. "That is quite ok. I still have to get my head around all of this."

They made their way back home to the Grangers. Sadly this was the day, when harry had to come back to the Dursleys. Because Harry normally walked all the way, they decided that the Granger would store his stuff, so he did not had to carry it all back. Harry said goodbye to the Grangers and made his way back to the Dursleys.

* * *

The first indication for the Dursleys, that change was coming, was in the mid of July. The beginning of the day was normal. Vernon and Petunia came down to breakfast, which was made by the Freak. Than Dudley would come down and eat for two. The Dursley's would make pleasant small talk, while Harry had to clean the table and the kitchen. The day continued until the postman arrived with the post. "Dudley get the letters" said Vernon. Dudley being his usual whiny self: "Make Harry get them." "Boy get he post!" Since Harry knew exactly what would happen, if he even suggested something like Dudley, just said: "Ok Uncle Vernon."

As he came to the door he found the letters at the doormat like always. Harry made his way back to the living room while looking through the letters, to sort them already. He then came across his Hogwarts letter. He knew it was coming from Hermione. How could he not, when she asked him every time they saw each other if it was already there. She really wanted to go to Hogwarts together with Harry.

After Harry gave the letter to Vernon and petunia respectively he tried to inconspicuous leave the living room and get back to his "room". Sadly luck was not on his side, because just as he opened the door he heard Vernon: "Boy, What do you have there. If I see you trying to hide our mail from us than..." Harry turned around and showed the him the letter: "This letter is for me." That was as far as he came before Vernon, surprisingly quick considering he looked like a walrus, snatched the letter out of Harry's hand and, after casting a quick glance on the letter, threw it into the bin.

"There is no one who would want to write a Freak like yourself. Do not ever try to lie to us again. Do you understand!" there was only one answer which could maybe stop his Uncle from erupting and since already knew what the letter said anyway he did not think it was worth getting hit for "Yes Uncle Vernon." "Good. Now finish the kitchen and then go to your cupboard, your aunt and I have to talk about a few things."

For Harry the vacations were always the worst time of the year, it got even worst since he knew Hermione. Not only did he have to work in the house the whole time, there was no difference from before but then there were the times in which Hermione went on vacations with her parents and somehow the Dursleys were always more reluctant to allow Harry to go to Hermione than while school was in session.

The next week would be one of the most interesting the Dursleys and Harry ever had. First off the amount of letters which were addressed at Harry seemed to increase with each one that got destroyed. As such each day inside of Privet Drive 4 was spent with more chaos than the day before. When at July the 30. the letters also started to arrive through the chimney Vernon had enough. He put the entire family inside the car and drove to the coast.

Vernon rented a building that looked like a oversized shack on a small rock at the coast. Here he hoped that the flood of letters would stop. He was not mistaken. There would be no flood of letters, but instead shortly after midnight. "Knock! Knock! Crash!" Someone had knocked on the door, but the door did not survive the 2nd knock and fell to the floor inside.

Inside the door stood someone you could only describe as a giant. He was 3 ½ meters tall. He came into the shack and picked up the door mumbling: "Sorry 'bout that." In the meanwhile Vernon and Petunia, woken by the crashing door came down from where they slept. Vernon had an old shotgun in his hand: "You are breaking and entering, Sir. I demand that you leave at once." The giant of a man just went over to Vernon and bended the barrel of the shotgun 90 degree upwards, where the gun discharged into the ceiling. "Oh Vernon, dry up you old prone."

Hagrid looked around the room and his eyes fell on Dudley, who sat on the sofa. "Harry. The last time I saw you was when you were just a toddler, but you a further along than I thought, especially around here", and with that he patted his stomach. Dudley just tried to sink further into the sofa: "I am not Harry."

That was when Harry came around the chimney, behind which he stood until now. "I am Harry." Harry thought it best to play stupid, as not to tell his relatives that he already knew about Hogwarts. If you had to come back it would be wise to know as little as possible. As such he asked: "Wh.. Who are you and what do you want?" Hagrid first of gave Harry a small birthday cake: "Happy birthday, Harry. Now I am Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of Grounds and Keys at Hogwarts."

"What is Hogwarts?" came Harry's reply. Hagrid just looked perplexed. "Blimey Harry. Did you not ask yourself, where your parents learned that all? You're a wizard, Harry." Harry sticking to his story of not knowing anything: " A wizard. Are you sure that you mean me. I mean I am just Harry." Hagrid walked over to Harry with a big smile "Of course I mean you. Your parents where one if the finest people I knew and where there not times, when something happened, which you could not explain when you were angry or sad?"

Harry just stayed silent and looked at Hagrid. Hagrid went on: "You will be learning to control it at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Under one of the finest headmaster the school ever had. Albus Dumbledore." That was when the shock wore of by the Dursleys and Vernon said: "He will NOT go there. He will go to Stonewall High and he will be grateful for it. I will not pay some Crackpot to teach him magic tricks." That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. As soon as he finished speaking Hagrid grabbed him by his collar and with his face near Vernon's: "You will not insult Albus Dumbledore while I am here!"

After that Hagrid took Harry with him and they mounted a motorbike. Harry wondered, if they were going to Diagon Alley, when he Bike started to fly. His amazement must have been easy readable because Hagrid said: "It is a nice bike and you have to remember with magic nearly everything is possible." and with this they flew to London. Landing near the Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid parked the bike. "Where are we going Hagrid? You said something about shopping and not a pup." Harry remembered Hagrid. They spoke briefly about it, when Hagrid gave Harry his Hogwarts letter.

"Oh but we are going shopping. It is just that the magical world is hidden and this is the entrance for the part with the shops." Hagrid explained. As they entered the pup, the barman greeted Hagrid: "Hello Hagrid. The usual?" But Hagrid shook his head: "No. I am on Hogwarts business and to go shopping with Harry Potter."

This one sentence had the ability to make Harry feel about as uncomfortable as possible. It seemed as if every witch and wizard stopped whatever it was they were doing and stared at the two. This was only for a moment though as shortly after Harry was swarmed, because everyone wanted to shake his hand and ti make small talk.

Harry was more than just a bit surprised. Of course, he expected some popularity, after all the books that mentioned him and his conversation with the goblins, but never in his wildest dream would he have thought that is was in such a magnitude. He was glad when Hagrid took charge and let him through the masses to the backdoor. When they were through Harry just had to ask: "What the hell happened with the people there. Why was it that everybody wanted to shake my hand?"

Hagrid looked a bit uncomfortable when he said: "Well Harry. You are quite famous in our world. I am sorry but I forgot that you do not know anything about this all. You see... When you were just a baby, there was this Dark Wizard. He was so feared that even today the people refuse to call him anything else than You-Know-Who. He was killing and torturing everybody who opposed him. Everybody but you. When he came to kill you, he cast the killing course on you. But somehow you not only survived but he vanished."

That was what Harry already knew, but it seemed he underestimated Voldemort even after his conversation with the goblin leader. But it made sense, why else would the leader of the goblins talk with him. Still it was something Harry wanted to know more about. How was Voldemort so powerful and who followed him and such.

Silence hung between them, as Hagrid led Harry to the bank. Harry was in his own thoughts and Hagrid seemed had quite a bit on his mind as well. As they entered the bank Harry thought he should say something: "Excuse me Mr. Hagrid. What are we doing here? I do not have any money."

Hagrid continued while looking strangely at Harry: "You did not think your parents left you nothing did ya?" And with that he went to the next teller.

Harry being confused at what Hagrid knew about his finances followed him. When it was their turn Hagrid said: "Mr. Potter here would like to make a withdrawal." The goblin looked down on Harry and said: "Very well. The key please Mr. Potter." Now things got confusing. As Harry wanted to take out his key Hagrid started to search through his pockets, while saying: "Oh wait. I have that."

He placed different things on the counter. The goblin's looked more disgusted with each new thing Hagrid laid onto the counter.

After a short while he exclaimed: "There is the little devil!" and proceeded to give a key to the goblin. Harry just stood there shocked, as it seemed the mystery of where his key went was now solved. The goblin looked indifferent if you were not able to read them well. However every goblin knew about the potter fault, as it was one of the few security leaks ever at Gringotts. He pressed a button which was hidden from view of the customer and continued on as normal. "This seems to be in order."

As they made their way to the carts to drive to the vaults Harry still did not know what to think. But he was curious what would happen as the key, which was now in the possession of the goblin would not fit, as they remade the lock after Harry's last visit. But they did not reach the carts, as about half way they were intercepted by 4 guards which took formation around them and lead them to another room. As they arrived at the door the guards asked Hagrid politely, well as politely as was possible with everyone carrying a deadly looking battle ax.

"What the hell." Was all Hagrid could say, as he was shoved into the room. After the doors were closed the goblin spoke to Harry: "Mr. Potter, I hope you will allow us to interrogate Mr. Hagrid as how he got hold of this key." Harry was conflicted. Yes Hagrid had his key, but he also rescued him from the Dursleys and in the short time he got to know him, he did not think that he was a bad man. As such he said: " Yes, but please do not be too hard on him. I have the feeling that he is a good man, in the wrong position." The goblin nodded and entered the room in which Hagrid was. The guards meanwhile asked Harry, where he wanted to go and that escorted him to a waiting room, so he could wait for the result of the interrogation of Hagrid.

About half an hour alter was when Hagrid was released from the goblins. He looked confused and a bit conflicted as he collected Harry. Harry not being able to suppress his curiosity asked: "What did they want form you and is everything alright?" Hagrid jerked as he was in his own thoughts. "What?... Yeah, everything is good. They just asked me how I got the key to your vault. Told them I got it from Dumbledore. Didn't seemed to happy they did. Seemed as if you should had your key as you visited them last time. Funny since Dumbledore said this would be your first visit." Now Hagrid looked at Harry with a confused look. It didn't seem as if he was angry, as such Harry thought it would not hurt to tell him at least a little of what he was up to.

"Yeah. I was here the first time about a year ago. My friend and her family brought me here. But did we not come here to buy a few things? We did not get everything last time. I already have the robes and the books but I still need the rest." "Alright then. How about you go to Ollivander and I will buy your birthday present in the meantime." With that Hagrid showed Harry to the wand maker.

Harry entered the shop with caution, as the door squeaked when he opened it. The inside was not really more inviting, with dust on every shelf. The moment when the door closed behind Harry was, when there came a voice from somewhere of the shop: "Greetings Mr. Potter. I expected you." Than Harry could see Ollivander as he came to the front of the shop. " I still remember the days your parents bought their first wands. But we are getting off track. Which hand?"

Harry was confused by this man. He was just a little taller than Harry, with gray hair. Harry lifted his right hand and it started surprisingly similar to Madam Malkin's. Harry was also measured by a band that moved by it's own. "How do we choose a wand for me?" asked Harry. Ollivander looked at him and started to laugh: "Oh no. We are not choosing anything. The wand chooses the wizard Mr. Potter. I just try to narrow it down to find a suitable wand." Then he went to one of the shelves and came back with a small package.

Ollivander took the wand out of the package: "Ebony with a Unicorn hair." He gave it to Harry, who did not really know what to do and just stood there. Ollivander looked at him and said: "Well, give it a wave." but as soon as Harry started to move the wand, Ollivander snatched it out of his hand: "No, not that one". And that was how it went for the next hour. Ollivander would search a wand give it to Harry and that take it away when Harry waved it. With each failing wand Harry got more irritated and slowly fear started to built up. What when there was not wand for him? But Ollivander seemed to enjoy it. He got more exited the more time went by: "A tricky customer he." he said with a wide grin.

Suddenly Ollivander looked as if he was in deep though. He went deep into his shop and came back with one of the most dusty wand casing Harry had seen until now. "Hmm. Maybe, yes why not. Dumbledore said it could be." said Ollivander to himself, then to Harry: "Here try this one. Holly with a phoenix feather, 11 inch." It just made Harry more nervous and confused:_ "Why is it, that everywhere I go something happened with this Dumbledore. I need to see what he wants from me." _In the meantime Ollivander already had the wand out and wanted to give it to Harry. Harry took it and felt something different in this one then the rest. It felt as if his magic responded it the wand, but it was not a good feeling. It felt as if there was a extreme pressure behind his magic and Harry knew this feeling from when he learned to control his magic. It was always when he was about to use too much power, but Ollivander sold wands his whole life, so Harry thought he knew what he was doing. As soon as Harry started to move the wand he knew it was a bad idea and he should have heard on his feeling. He felt as if his whole body was on fire and the wand in his hand exploded before he was able to raise his hand completely. Sadly it did not stop there as shortly before the wand exploded a light shot from it to one of the shelves which was instantly completely covered in flames.

While Ollivander was occupied with dousing the flames, Harry was under intense pain as he tried to control his magic, which was trying to escape his body. It felt as if his whole body was on flames and he was exposed to one of Vernon's not so mercy tenders. It took about 10 minutes for Ollivander to completely get the flames under control as they did not respond to flame freezing charm or such things and had to be doused the muggle way with water. For Harry it was enough time to get his magic back under control and to look something resembling normal, if you ignored that his clothes were full of sweat.

As everything calmed down Ollivander was not able to conceal his shock and excitement. It was a long time since he had such a tricky and interesting customer. The fact that this customer just destroyed a whole shelve of wands was not interesting for Ollivander. He liked challenges. He turned to Harry and said: "It seemed as if you are the most tricky customer I had yet. Let's see what we can do for you." With that he began to mumble and walking though the shop. Sometimes he would look at Harry and then go back to mumbling. Harry just stood there leaning on the wall beside the door and trying to catch his breath. He also hoped that Ollivander did not want him to pay everything that was destroyed right now. While Harry knew he had money, it did not mean that he wanted to throw it our the window.

Ten minutes later Ollivander stopped mumbling and it seemed he had an idea as he started to walk into the deeper parts of his shop. Before he was out of sight he turned to Harry and said: "It seemed as if the last wand was a match, but was somehow not able to withstand the power you put out. Quite curious if I may say so. Now... The best way would probably to make you custom wand. WE better get started than as this will take some time and I think you would like to have your wand before you get to Hogwarts. If you would follow me please, Mr. Potter."

Ollivander led Harry deeper into the shop and through a door. In this room there was quite a chaos. Different size of wood sticks lay in seemingly random order on the left side. One corner on the right, there were towers of glass jars stacked until the ceiling. In the other corner were things which Harry was not able to identify. On the wall opposite to the door there was a working table which was also covered with some materials. The only light in this room was a dimly glowing lantern.

As they entered the room the first thing Ollivander did was waving his own wand and the materials from the table flew back to the different stashes. "Now. If you could please go over to the wood." Harry went over to the left side. "Now please try to bring back the same feeling that you had when the wand blew up. Do not worry if it does not work at the beginning. You need to let your magic fill your body a to find the right materials. Normally the only one who want custom wands are already finished with Hogwarts and as such know how to do it. We will just have to try and if it does not work than." That was as far as Ollivander came with his explanation. Harry knew exactly what was wanted from him, as it was the same thing he did already at home when he trained. It was now pretty easy for him.

Slowly Harry let his magic fill his body. At first nothing happened. Harry let his body fill more and more with magic. When he was about three quarters to the maximum of what Harry could store in his body safely, suddenly one of the wand blank shot from the pile directly into his right hand. Ollivander took it from him: "Ah Holly. Not surprising really, considering the last wand seemed like a match. Now we need a core. Please repeat the same action again next to the cores. They are inside the glass jars there." He pointed to the jars in the corner.

Harry went over to the cores and started to let his magic fill his body again. Hen he was about the same as when the wand blanket came there happened again something. Surprisingly enough it was not only core that came to him this time. First thing that flew into his flew hand was another wood stick. It had the form of a cylinder but was really thin. Than came his core. One of the jars from Ollivander's stock rose up, but instead of coming to Harry, the jar broke. From the door to the front of the shop came a feather and the string from the jar wound itself around the feather before flying into Harry's right hand.

After giving it over to Ollivander, the wand maker carefully puts everything into a box. Then he said: "Let's see. Holly and vine wood for the case. A Dragon hearth string and the phoenix feather for the core. If you ask yourself how the feather can still be fine after your little explosion, it is actually quite simple, even though I never knew this could happen. Phoenix use the fire for regularly rebirths, you will learn about that in Hogwarts, and it seems as if the feather used that ability and the fire to renew itself. Quite interesting. Now that we have everything, that will be 10 galleons. I will have this finished in a few hours since you need to have it for Hogwarts."

This concluded Harry's business with Ollivander. He paid for the wand and then went outside to look for Hagrid. Just as he was exiting the shop he met Hagrid who was about to enter. "Hello there Harry. When I saw that it took you a while with old Ollivander I was bought everything else you need. I also bought you a birthday present." Only now saw Harry the sack that was carried by Hagrid in one hand. In the other Hand Hagrid had a cage with a beautiful white snow owl inside. When Hagrid gave him the cage, Harry gingerly took it and put one finger inside to caress her.

"Thank you Hagrid. What do we call you hmm? Hedwig?" The owl lovely nipped his finger. "Looks like she likes that name. Now while we wait for your wand to finish I need to make a short stop at Gringotts. It's something I forgot before."

They made their way back to the bank and when they were inside they went to a teller, which Hagrid gave a letter. After that they went to the carts and drove to a vault. There Hagrid took out a small dirty package, which he instantly put inside his coat. After that they wandered a bit about in Diagon Alley. When they went back to Ollivander's the wand was finished. When Harry first took

hold of his wand, he could not describe how it felt. It was as if his magic was summing inside him and responding to the wand. Sadly they were short on time and as such he had no real time to explore the feeling. He would do that in Hogwarts. After that Hagrid brought Harry back to the Dursleys.

The next day was the day on which Harry and Hermione would take the train to Hogwarts for the first time. Harry was so excited the whole night that he was barley able to sleep. Finally he would be able to leave the Dursleys for a longer time and be together with Hermione. Harry and the Grangers agreed that they would take Harry with them to King's Cross. As such it was early in the morning when Harry started to make his way to Hermione. Luckily he had most of the heavy stuff already there and only had to carry what he bought with Hagrid on his birthday.

But even that was a challenge as it consisted of quite a few bulky things. But Harry was not your normal 11th year old. After all it was 4 years ago when he discovered that he was able to do magic. Although he had no comparison to anyone who learned magic from Hogwarts, Harry still thought that he did well enough on his own. As such he was able to shrink his stuff and make it at least a light enough that he would be able to carry it without much of a problem.

As he arrived at the Grangers he was greeted by Emma: "Hello Harry. Hermione is still eating breakfast. Do you want anything?" "Hello Mrs. Granger. No thanks, I have already." In reality Harry had not anything to eat, but that was because of 2 reasons. First he was way to excited to eat anything and 2nd were the Dursleys.

Harry followed Emma into the living room. There were Dean and Hermione sitting at the table. It was clear that Hermione was having problems to really eat anything. She was not able to sit calmly at the table. When she saw Harry she was instantly up and had Harry in a hug before anyone could react. "Hi Harry. Now can we finally go." As Dean heard that he let our a small chuckle. "Hermione we still have more than enough time. How about you finish your breakfast and than we drive over to Kings Cross." Hermione looked irritated at her father but did as he told and sat back at the table. "I'm just so excited and I do not want to miss the train." Harry let out a small smile as this was exactly Hermione.

An hour later the five were in the car and on their way to the train station. In the car they talked about a kind of things, Hermione especially asked Harry about all kind of things, what he was expecting Hogwarts was like. It was a good atmosphere in which they arrived at King's Cross in London.

_Well and that was Chapter 5 of my story. Thanks for everyone for reading and sticking with me for the long downtime. I really hope that this was by far the longest time between 2 chapters. Now there are 2 additional things I wanted to talk about. First thanks for every review till now. I will now start answering to review, so if you have questions or something that is not clear, ask away. I will of course not spoiler my story, so no "What will happen with Ron" or such things ;D._

_The other thing I wanted to talk about are the Dursleys. There were some who were afraid that they would nothing happening in regards to them. Now all I will say is they will get what they deserve but not yet. I want to have it at least a little realistic, also why the Grangers did not really to anything. The Dursleys have made a great effort to hide the abuse from everyone. Yes the Granger suspect something but they have no real evidence or anything really._

_Well that was one of the longest A/N's I ever wrote. I hope I have addressed everything and that you liked the chapter. If you did leave a review it always helps. Have a nice day and see you next time._

_Conan 55_


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